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Blast injuries are among the most common injuries in military operations. Also, in civilian environments, more explosive threats are expected in the future due to emerging conflicts and threats. While the effect of fragments, which is classified as secondary blast injury, could be minimized by police and military personnel’s modern ballistic body protection systems, the effects of shock wave propagation in the body as part of the primary explosion trauma still remain a serious threat needing further research.
The detonation-physical processes of highly dynamic pressure changes within the human body, the reflection-related amplification of shock waves at organ-dermis interfaces, and the consequences of injury mechanisms have become more prominent in international research. Various approaches have been used to investigate these aspects. Animal experiments on free field test sites or shock tube setups combined with a subsequent biological evaluation and numerical simulations provided promising results and allowed the discussion of different biomechanical aspects. However, due to poor reproducibility and a lack of short-term dynamic material properties, most research approaches have significant limitations. Laboratory test setups do not represent real-scale high explosive detonation parameters with regards to pressure characteristics, impulse duration and blockage problems. Measured values are interpreted with partly outdated, selective and not validated limit values for overpressures from field tests with animals. This is due to the lack of a validated and comprehensive data set covering a variation of the crucial parameter. Injury mechanisms and their effects have not yet been sufficiently elucidated for the torso and extremities.
In order to contribute to the research efforts on the primary explosion effects, the German Federal Armed Forces established an interdisciplinary military medical research project in cooperation of the Bundeswehr Hospital Berlin and the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). The aim of the planned investigation is the development of a multidisciplinary method to investigate shock wave behavior in various generic tissue simulants under the most reproducible conditions possible with realistic loads in an experimental test series with short set-up times.
Following directly from the information presented at IFBIC 2023 on the research project 'Investigation of intracorporeal shock wave propagation using a simplified torso model and a shock wave generator', the latest results are presented below [1]. In order to contribute to the research efforts on the primary explosion effects, the aim of the investigation is the development of a multidisciplinary method to investigate shock wave behavior in various generic tissue simulants under the most reproducible conditions possible with realistic loads in an experimental series with short set-up times.
To achieve this, an autoclave with a volume of 0.065 m3 is used to generate reproducible pressure waves (Fig. 1). The autoclave will be referred to as Shockwave Generator (SWG). The pressure wave is produced by the detonation of a stoichiometric mixture of acetylene and oxygen under atmospheric conditions. The SWG-outlet is sealed by a rupture disc, which can be adjusted in thickness to vary the initial pressure. Additionally, modifying the composition of the acetylene-oxygen mixture can result in different load cases. The SWG requires approximately 30 minutes of set-up time between trials. The SWG was adjusted to match the characteristics of a real and typical explosive through free-field measurements. The experiments demonstrated that the pressure wave propagates in a hemispherical shape and has sufficient reproducibility.
To represent soft tissue, a basic model made of homogeneous ballistic gelatin is used in a geometrically simplified torso model (STM) (Fig. 2). The STM was enlarged to outer dimensions of 400 x 250 x 240 mm. Viscoelastic behavior of the ballistic gelatin can be assumed due to the collagen structure [2]. The density of the ballistic gelatin, and therefore the sound velocity, can be adjusted by changing the mixing ratio. Simplified simulants, such as hollow and solid material (bone simulant), were embedded in the STM. Additionally, the STM has been tested as a carrier material for biological substances, such as indicator species. The next step is to test the STM as a carrier material for larger organic tissue structures such as lungs or kidneys. The organic tissue samples will undergo histological examination to analyze their structural changes afterwards. The STM is equipped with embedded piezoelectric pressure sensors, an accelerometer and a temperature sensor. Visual documentation is captured using a high-speed camera. This measurement setup allows for the tracking of the coupled pressure wave and its behavior within the model and at the media transitions. Pressure values can be recorded after certain media changes, such as from soft tissue to a solid material (Figure 3).
The following is a review of the optimizations made to the entire experimental setup. The reproducibility of the SWG was increased. This was achieved by extending the evacuation process to the entire feed system of the SWG. Nitrogen residues in the SWG system can thus be avoided. As a result, the double peaks that occur at the first maximum can be avoided, as combustion runs more evenly without the nitrogen residues. In addition, partially varying peak overpressures can be avoided, as the acytelene-oxygen mixture is not too lean due to the elimination of the nitrogen residues. The workflow has been streamlined, resulting in an average set-up time of 25 minutes for the SWG. In the case of the STM, the manufacturing process in particular was optimized by examining and defining the manufacturing process based on scientific publications, which increases the reproducibility of the STM base bodies. As already mentioned in the previous paragraph, the STM was equipped with various additives in order to investigate the transition behavior of the pressure wave.
The following trail serves as an example: A comparison is made between the STM in the basic structure (Fig. 2 l.s.) and with an embedded solid material (bone plate) (Fig. 3 l.s.). An external overpressure of 100 kPa is generated by the SWG at a distance of 1 m, where the STM is placed. For the basic STM structure, the sensor distance is consistently 100 mm. The internal overpressure is visible in Fig. 2 r.s.. A typical ideal pressure curve can be seen. The characteristic points are easily distinguishable from the reflection peaks. In the STM with an embedded solid material, the sensor distance remains consistently at 66.6 mm