Over 2.4 million eye injuries occur each year in the US, with over 30,000
patients left blind as a result of the trauma. The majority of these injuries
occur in automobile crashes, military operations and sporting activities. The
Virginia Tech Eye Model was developed for the prediction of ocular injury from
frontal impacts to the globe. It uses a stress-based criteria for the
prediction of globe rupture in the corneoscleral shell. The model incorporates
a Lagrangian representation for the outer shell (solid) portions of the eye and
a Eulerian representation for the fluid (aqueous and vitreous) portions of the
eye. The model has been validated using impacts with foam particles, BB´s, and
baseballs (see animations below). The model can be used as a predictive aid to
reduce the burden of eye injury, and can serve as a validated model to predict
globe rupture.
REFERENCES:
Stitzel J, Duma S, Herring
I, Cormier J. A nonlinear finite element model of the eye with experimental
validation for the prediction of globe rupture. Stapp Car Crash Journal 2002;
46:81-102.