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Improvised explosive devices (IED) have become the predominant weapon used in recent military conflicts against the coalition forces and in terror acts against civilian populations. IED technology and deployment methods have increased in complexity, and so have the resultant injuries, which require an increase in the sophistication of protection countermeasures and efficacy of medical interventions. Computational injury biomechanics, complemented with model-guided experimental testing can provide valuable support, not only in better understanding of blast injury mechanics, but also in the development of personnel protective armor, injury diagnostics, combat casualty care, and rehabilitation. Contemporary models of injury biomechanics typically focus on a specific loading mechanism and injury type to a single organ (e.g., bone, brain, or lung). IED injuries, however, typically result in polytrauma caused not only by the primary blast wave but also by associated penetrating injures caused by the debris and ejecta from buried IEDs. Computational modeling of blast wave injury poses significant challenges as it involves several physical disciplines such as blast wave gas dynamics, human body biodynamics, injury biomechanics, and trauma pathophysiology as well as a range of spatial and temporal scales. US DoD, in collaboration with academia and industry, is developing computational models and tools for various injury types caused by IEDs. Research projects are exploring experimental and computational tools dedicated to blast wave-induced traumatic brain injury, lung injury, hearing loss, extremity injury, and soldier protection. This paper presents a novel concept and prototype implementation of a multiscale, multiresolution computational framework for modeling human body injury caused by IED blast wave and fragmentation/debris loads. The overall architecture of the framework, major components, and example simulation results of blast injury mechanisms are discussed.

Injury Biomechanics, Blast injury, Mathematical modeling