AN ANATOMICALLY-RELEVANT COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR PRIMARY BLAST EFFECTS ON THE HUMAN LOWER EXTREMITY

Abstract

Explosions pose serious threats to US soldiers and civilians, often resulting in disability and death. Due to its direct contact with the ground, the lower extremity is commonly injured, and the blast loading often results in traumatic amputations and soft tissue rupture. The exact overpressure signatures that induce these primary blast injuries are still unknown. A high fidelity FE model of the lower extremity blast condition is thus essential to reveal the underlying injury mechanism. In this study, we created an anatomically-relevant lower extremity model and analyzed several different blast cases using Abaqus/Explicit. Pressures, impulses, stresses, and maximum principal strains were evaluated and compared to previous results in the literature. Our FE model and simulation were able to capture the detailed structural responses to a blast wave in the lower extremity; moreover, we showed that the injury patterns could be correlated to biomechanical metrics that may have incited pathologies such as amputations and compartment syndrome. The lower extremity FE model developed in this project allows for a cost-effective and reproducible analysis of blast events and has the potential to improve injury metrics and personal protective equipment design by accurately evaluating the damage imposed on the lower extremity.