Development of a Lower Extremity Model at Blast Conditions

Bertucci, R., Gilbrech, R., Mao, M., Horstemeyer, M., Liao, J., Prabhu, R., & Williams, L. N. (2011). Development of a Lower Extremity Model at Blast Conditions. HFM-207 NATO Symposium on Blast Injury. Nova Scotia. 17.

Abstract

Explosions are the leading cause of death on the battlefield. These explosives generate shock waves which stimulate large accelerations and deformations. The resulting loads pose serious threats to those in theater and civilians. Since lower extremities are in contact with the ground or other flat surfaces, they are commonly injured during explosions. Although experimental studies have been performed to advance these understandings, limited progress has been made in computational analysis of shock waves on the lower extremity. In this study, the lower extremity has been modeled with a robust mesh created for a Finite Element Analysis of blast conditions and analyzed.