Blast injuries are an increasing problem in both military and civilian practice. Primary blast injury to the lungs (blast lung) is found in a clinically significant proportion of casualties from explosions even in an open environment, and in a high proportion of severely injured casualties following explosions in confined spaces. Blast casualties also commonly suffer secondary and tertiary blas...

Blast–obstacle interaction is a complex, multi-faceted problem. Whilst engineering-level tools exist for predicting blast parameters (e.g. peak pressure, impulse and loading duration) in geometrically simple settings, wave fundamentally altered upon with an object its path, hence, the are themselves affected. This article presents comprehensive review of key research this area. The formed five ...

Given the frequent use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) around the world, the study of traumatic blast injuries is of increasing interest. The ear is the most common organ affected by blast injury because it is the body's most sensitive pressure transducer. We fabricated a blast chamber to re-create blast profiles similar to that of IEDs and used it to develop a reproducible mouse model t...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the air deflation pressure of the eustachian tubes in patients with tympanic membrane perforations due to various forms of otitis media and those with myringotomy or blast injury perforations. METHODS: The study group consisted of 321 patients (407 ears) aged 4 months to 91 years with tympanic membrane perforations due to otitis media (318 ears), blast injury (27), and myr...

Purpose We identify long-term ocular sequelae subsequent to experimental blast exposure. Methods Male Long-Evans rats were exposed to 230 kPa side-on primary blast overpressure using a compressed air driven shock tube. Visual system function and structure were assessed for 8 weeks after exposure using optokinetic nystagmus and optical coherence tomography. Vitreous protein expression and hist...

The effects of pre-pressurization on blast-loaded reinforced rectangular aluminum plates were studied experimentally. In this study, small (0.508 x 0.609 x 0.0016 meter) clamped plates with rivet attached reinforcing members were used as a basic model of the fuselage skin of a commercial aircraft. Both un-pressurized and pre-pressurized plates (static pressure of 41.4 kPa (6.0 psi)) were consid...

The modelling of consequences to built infrastructure when subject to blast loading is well developed; however, there is considerable uncertainty and variability with explosive loading and system response; which provides many challenges for collateral damage estimation. In this paper, structural facades are assessed – with a focus on glazing – as this is a structural and load-capacity system th...

Blast-associated shock wave-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) remains a persistent risk for armed forces worldwide, yet its detailed pathophysiology remains to be fully investigated. In this study, we have designed and characterized a laboratory-scale shock tube to develop a rodent model of bTBI. Our blast tube, driven by a mixture of oxygen and acetylene, effectively generates blast overpr...

The objective of this paper is to investigate the structural response of carbon fiber sandwich panels subjected to blast loading through an integrated experimental and numerical approach. A total of nine experiments, corresponding to three different blast intensity levels were conducted in the 28-inch square shock tube apparatus. Computational models were developed to capture the experimental d...