Cameron R. 'Dale' Bass, Associate Research Professor  


Cameron R. 'Dale' Bass

Cameron R. 'Dale' Bass is an Associate Research Professor with Duke's Department of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Injury and Othopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory.

A major research focus of Dr. Bass is the study of blast-related brain injury and injury mechanisms. Past research has concentrated air containing organs, such as the lungs and bowel. Results from the limited evidence of over 80 years of experimentation suggested that the brain tolerance for blast was much greater than the pulmonary tolerance for blast. However, recent anecdotal evidence suggests that many soldiers returning from combat have symptoms that are consistent with underlying brain injuries. The etiology for these injuries is unclear and may include a spectrum of sources from blunt impact injuries to post traumatic stress disorder to primary blast injuries.

The primary goals of this research are to:

  • determine injury thresholds for blast brain injury
  • identify injury mechanisms underlying blast brain injury

This research may help reduce the frequency of brain injury caused by blast events, help identify treatments for such injury, and provide the knowledge to develop better protective equipment to protect against such injuries. Many projects involve multi-disciplinary collaborations between BME, Duke University Medical Center, Durham Veterans Affairs, and other major research institutions.

Contact Info:
Office Location:  2216 Hudson Hall
Office Phone:  (919) 681-9979
Email Address:   send me a message
Web Page: http://biomechanics.pratt.duke.edu
Injury and Orthopedics Biomechanics Laboratory

Education:

PhD, University of Virginia, 1994
Research Interests:

Dr. Bass's research interests include the biomechanics of blast, blunt and ballistic trauma and pediatric trauma. His research focuses on injury risk from microscale to macroscale for the head, neck, thorax and extremities.

Areas of Interest:

Injury Biomechanics - the theoretical and experimental study of injury causation on the macro, meso and microscale, development of injury risk models


Computational Modeling – Development of validated computational models for determining the bioeffects of shock and other impacts. Largely finite element modeling. Development of probabilistic finite element models.


Low and High-Rate Material Characterization – Testing of biological and non-biological materials to determine the mechanical properties from low to very high strain rates. Constitutive models are developed using linear, quasi-linear, or fully nonlinear viscoelastic theory. These models are then incorporating into numerical models used to determine the effects of blast or blunt impact on biological or non-biological structures. Current high-rate material characterization techniques used in this research include low to high-rate step/relaxation testing, split-Hopkinson pressure bar testing, acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) testing, and localized shock testing.


Evaluation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – Evaluation of PPE such as helmets, visors, and body armor subjected to blunt or blast loads to identify the effectiveness of PPE in reducing injury. PPE evaluations often involve the combination of blunt impact, shock tube or free-field testing using instrumented Hybrid-III test dummies or other surrogates.

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

  1. R. S. Salzar and C. R. Bass and D. Lessley and J. R. Crandall and R. W. Kent and J. R. Bolton, Viscoelastic Response of the Thorax under Dynamic Belt Loading, Traffic Injury Prevention, vol. 10 no. 3 (2009), pp. 290 -- 296  [abs].
  2. R. S. Salzar and D. Genovese and C. R. Bass and J. R. Bolton and H. Guillemot and A. M. Damon and J. R. Crandall, Load path distribution within the pelvic structure under lateral loading, International Journal Of Crashworthiness, vol. 14 no. 1 (2009), pp. 99 -- 110  [abs].
  3. C. R. Bass and K. A. Rafaels and R. S. Salzar, Pulmonary injury risk assessment for short-duration blasts, Journal Of Trauma-injury Infection And Critical Care, vol. 65 no. 3 (September, 2008), pp. 604 -- 615  [abs].
  4. S. R. Lucas and C. R. Bass and R. S. Salzar and M. L. Oyen and C. Planchak and A. Ziemba and B. S. Shender and G. Paskoff, Viscoelastic properties of the cervical spinal ligaments under fast strain-rate deformations, Acta Biomaterialia, vol. 4 no. 1 (January, 2008), pp. 117 -- 125  [abs].
  5. C. R. Bass and C. J. Planchak and R. S. Salzar and S. R. Lucas and K. A. Rafaels and B. S. Shender and G. Paskoff, The temperature-dependent viscoelasticity of porcine lumbar spine ligaments, Spine, vol. 32 no. 16 (July, 2007), pp. E436 -- E442  [abs].