Effect of human and sheep lung orientation on primary blast injury induced by single blast

The intensity and type of trauma inflicted on a bod y by blast overpr essure are related to man y facto rs. Among them, body orientation. In order to study the effect of body orientation, detailed models of 2D horizontal slices of human and sh eep thoraces have been developed and va lidated with the limited data available in the open literature. The main goal o f this stud y is to verify if the injuries observed in the animal are trul y representative of human lung injuries for simple blast loadings at differen t orientations to the blast. In tota l, twelve blast directions were simulated for three diff erent blast injur y l evels based on the Bowe n curv es. The s heep and the hum an tors os were rota ted according to the ir vertical axis i n increments of 30 degree star ting from 0 degree through to 330 degree. From this study, it is predicted that the greatest reduction in lung primary blast injuries may be come from focusing on protecting the torso from -60 deg to +60 deg. Results showed also, that sheep are more d ependent to the blast wave duration and orientation.