THORAX INJURY CRITERIA ASSESSMENT THROUGH NON-LETHAL IMPACT USING AN ENHANCED BIOMECHANICAL MODEL

Abstract

Ballistic injury refers to the interaction of a projectile and the human body, resulting in penetration or blunt trauma. In order to consider both consequences, a hydrodynamic elastoplastic constitutive law was implemented in a numerical FE model of the human torso to simulate soft tissues behavior and to evaluate their injury risk. This law, derived from 20% ballistic gelatin, was proven to be very efficient and biofidelic for penetrating ballistic simulation in soft tissues at very high velocity. In this study, the ability of the hydrodynamic law to simulate blunt ballistic trauma is evaluated by the replication of Bir et al.’s (2004) experiments, which is a reference test of the literature for nonpenetrating ballistic impact. Lung injury criteria were also investigated through the Bir et al.’s experiments numerical replication. Human responses were evaluated in terms of mechanical parameters, which can be global (acceleration of the body, viscous criteria and impact force) or local (stress, pressure and displacement). Output results were found to be in experimental corridors developed by Bir et al., and the maximum pressure combined with the duration of the peak of pressure in the lungs seems to be a good predictor for lung injury.