Recent data from heavy weapon training environments suggests that protecting the Warfighter from impulse noise exceeding 140 dB may require assessing and mitigating various modes of noise propagation into the head, rather than solely focusing on protecting air conduction through the ear canal. To…
In this presentation we look at various finite element methods for modeling biological matter. Because biological matter is nearly incompressible, volumetric locking must be accounted for. Mixed finite elements are known to overcome locking and in addition are particularly suited for problems where a…
Self-assembling polymers have become an important component of armor materials and protective coatings due to their ability to absorb and dissipate shock energy and rapidly self-seal punctures caused by projectiles. Optimal self-sealing polymers must be both elastically resilient and have fast molecular diffusion during…
In this presentation, we review our recent work in using the combination of instrumented mouthguards and finite element modeling to correlate to cognitive changes in American football players. We employ custom fit mouthguards to compute obtain kinematics of the skull and then use the…
Blunt thoracic trauma is known to result in a variety of injuries, from contusion to edema. In prior we work, we have shown that the presence of the heterogeneous bronchi structures within lungs alter the strain fields within the lung, making deeper inter-bronchial tissues…
An important consideration for space missions is the likelihood of contamination, either of terrestrial organisms to a planetary body which may sustain life (forward contamination), or of potential extraterrestrial lifeforms that are brought back through sample return (backward contamination). To identify the limits of…
A continuum theory is formulated for large deformations, thermal effects, constituent interactions, and degradation of soft biological tissues. Such tissues consist of one or more solid and fluid phases and can demonstrate nonlinear anisotropic elastic, viscoelastic, thermoelastic, and poroelastic deformation mechanisms. Under extremely large…
This study presents a computational analysis of the spinal health challenges faced by fighter pilots subjected to repeated high gravitational forces in training scenarios. Previous studies have indicated a heightened risk of acute spinal injuries and accelerated disc degeneration, particularly in the cervical spine…