Citation

Kumar R, Nedungadi A. Front. Neurol. 2020; 11: e90.

Affiliation

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fneur.2020.00090

PMID

32153491

PMCID

PMC7047208

Abstract

The increased incidence of improvised explosives in military conflicts has brought about an increase in the number of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) observed. Although physical injuries are caused by shrapnel and the immediate blast, encountering the blast wave associated with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) may be the cause of traumatic brain injuries experienced by warfighters. Assessment of the effectiveness of personal protective equipment (PPE) to mitigate TBI requires understanding the interaction between blast waves and human bodies and the ability to replicate the pressure signatures caused by blast waves. Prior research has validated compression-driven shock tube designs as a laboratory method of generating representative pressure signatures, or Friedlander-shaped blast profiles; however, shock tubes can vary depending on their design parameters and not all shock tube designs generate acceptable pressure signatures. This paper presents a comprehensive numerical study of the effects of driver gas, driver (breech) length, and membrane burst pressure of a constant-area shock tube. Discrete locations in the shock tube were probed, and the blast wave evolution in time at these points was analyzed to determine the effect of location on the pressure signature. The results of these simulations are used as a basis for suggesting guidelines for obtaining desired blast profiles.

Copyright © 2020 Kumar and Nedungadi.

Language: en

Keywords

CFD; blast wave; primary blast injury; shock tube; shock tube parameters