Bridging veins (BVs) are frequently damaged in traumatic brain injury due to
brain-skull relative motion. These veins, connected to the superior sagittal sinus
(SSS), are prone to rupture upon head impact giving rise to an acute subdural
hematoma (ASDH). We modeled the biomechanical characteristics of ASDH to study
the behavior of the SSS-BVs compound with its surrounding medium. The almost
periodic distribution of the BVs along the SSS allowed the use of the homogenization
method based on asymptotic expansion to calculate the effective elastic properties of
the brain-skull interface region. The representative volume element (RVE)
under study is an anisotropic equivalent medium with homogenized elastic
properties, accounting for the variations of each constituent’s mechanical
properties. It includes the sinus, the BVs and blood, and the surrounding
cerebrospinal fluid and tissue. The results show large variations in the RVE
anisotropic properties depending on each constituent of the BV and, to a
certain extent, on the variability of the surrounding constituents’ mechanical
properties.