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Design of a Traumatic Injury Simulator for Assessing Lower Limb Response to High Loading Rates

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Abstract

Current military conflicts are characterized by the use of the improvised explosive device. Improvements in personal protection, medical care, and evacuation logistics have resulted in increasing numbers of casualties surviving with complex musculoskeletal injuries, often leading to life-long disability. Thus, there exists an urgent requirement to investigate the mechanism of extremity injury caused by these devices in order to develop mitigation strategies. In addition, the wounds of war are no longer restricted to the battlefield; similar injuries can be witnessed in civilian centers following a terrorist attack. Key to understanding such mechanisms of injury is the ability to deconstruct the complexities of an explosive event into a controlled, laboratory-based environment. In this article, a traumatic injury simulator, designed to recreate in the laboratory the impulse that is transferred to the lower extremity from an anti-vehicle explosion, is presented and characterized experimentally and numerically. Tests with instrumented cadaveric limbs were then conducted to assess the simulator’s ability to interact with the human in two mounting conditions, simulating typical seated and standing vehicle passengers. This experimental device will now allow us to (a) gain comprehensive understanding of the load-transfer mechanisms through the lower limb, (b) characterize the dissipating capacity of mitigation technologies, and (c) assess the bio-fidelity of surrogates.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their appreciation to Northern Hydraulic Cylinder Engineers Ltd. for the construction of AnUBIS, and Warrant Officer Rachel Mackenzie MBE in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham for operating the CT scanner out of office hours. The costs for the construction and design of the rig were covered by the Army Benevolent Fund (ABF)—The Soldiers’ Charity; the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) Forces Help; the FH Muirhead Charitable Trust; the Drummond Foundation; and the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). The financial support of the Defence Medical Services (DMS) for AR, TJB, AMH, ATHW, and JCC, of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM) for the acquisition of equipment and consumables, of BBSRC for NN, and of Dstl and ABF—The Soldiers’ Charity for SDM are kindly acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, B304b Bessemer Building, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    Spyros D. Masouros, Nicolas Newell, Arul Ramasamy, Timothy J. Bonner, Adam M. Hill, Jon C. Clasper & Anthony M. J. Bull

  2. Academic Department of Military Surgery and Trauma, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham Research Park, Vincent Drive, Birmingham, B15 2SQ, UK

    Arul Ramasamy, Timothy J. Bonner, Adam M. Hill & Jon C. Clasper

  3. Centre of Defence Imaging, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham Research Park, Vincent Drive, Birmingham, B15 2SQ, UK

    Andrew T. H. West

Authors
  1. Spyros D. Masouros
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  2. Nicolas Newell
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  3. Arul Ramasamy
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  4. Timothy J. Bonner
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  5. Andrew T. H. West
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  6. Adam M. Hill
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  7. Jon C. Clasper
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  8. Anthony M. J. Bull
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Spyros D. Masouros.

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Associate Editor Stefan M Duma oversaw the review of this article.

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Appendix: Calculation of the Adiabatic Expansion

Appendix: Calculation of the Adiabatic Expansion

For an adiabatic gas expansion, the pressure falls according to the equation

$$ p_{\text{o}} V_{\text{o}}^{\gamma } = p(h)\left( {V(h)} \right)^{\gamma } ,\;0 < h < h_{\text{o}} $$
$$ p(h) = p_{\text{o}} \left( {1 + \frac{{h\frac{\pi }{4}D^{2} }}{{V_{\text{o}} }}} \right)^{ - \gamma } $$

where p is the pressure, V is the internal volume of the pressure vessel, h is the depth of the vessel, γ is the adiabatic index, and the subscript o implies the original, fully pressurized state.

Volume, \( V = V_{\text{o}} + hA = V_{\text{o}} + h\frac{\pi }{4}D^{2} \)

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Masouros, S.D., Newell, N., Ramasamy, A. et al. Design of a Traumatic Injury Simulator for Assessing Lower Limb Response to High Loading Rates. Ann Biomed Eng 41, 1957–1967 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-013-0814-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-013-0814-6

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