Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Animal studies; Blast-induced traumatic brain injury; BTBI; Human thresholds; Impulse equations

Abstract

"With the increased use of explosive devices in combat, blast induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) has become one of the signature wounds in current conflicts. Animal studies have been conducted to understand the mechanisms in the brain and a pressure versus time graph has been produced. However, the role of impulse in bTBIs has not been thoroughly investigated for animals or human beings.

This research proposes a new method of presenting bTBI data by using a pressure versus impulse (P-I) graph. P-I graphs have been found useful in presenting lung lethality regions and building damage thresholds. To present the animal bTBI data on a P-I graph for humans, the reported peak pressures needed to be scaled to humans, impulse values calculated, and impulse values scaled. Peak pressures were scaled using Jean et al.'s method, which accounts for all the structures of the head. Impulse values were estimated in two methods: Friedlander's impulse equation and a proposed modification to the Friedlander's impulse equation. The modification was needed as some animal testing was not subjected to shock waves with a steady decay, such as outside the end of a shock tube. Mass scaling was used to scale the reported time duration in the impulse calculation.

The scaled peak pressure and impulse values were plotted on a P-I graph with the reported severity. The three severities did not overlap; thus, each severity had its own region on the P-I graph. The severity regions were overlaid with lung damage and eardrum rupture P-I curves. Seven correlations were found between the bTBI regions and the observable injuries. bTBIs are not a new phenomenon, but in the past other serious injuries were more prominent, due to body armor not attenuating the shock wave as effectively"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Johnson, Catherine E.

Committee Member(s)

Perry, Kyle A.
Lusk, Braden
Worsey, Paul Nicholas
Feys, Dimitri

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Explosives Engineering

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2019

Pagination

xiv, 123 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references (pages 111-122).

Rights

© 2019 Barbara Rutter, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11551

Electronic OCLC #

1105154961

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