SBIR-STTR Award

Safety is paramount for DoD and contractor personnel conducting underwater explosive ordnance disposal. In order to create information needed for developing operating protocols including necessary stand-off distances and risk assessment of potential injuries, M4 Engineering will work with Virginia Tech to create an anatomically correct human lung and torso modeling capability. The resulting finite element models will provide predictive calculations of lung response to underwater explosion (UNDEX) specified using typical UNDEX metrics. The engineering results will be correlated with medical diagnoses to enable comparative assessments for different scenarios. Phase I will include development of a baseline lung model appropriate for identifying key modeling issues including material properties and geometric parameters necessary for advanced predictions. This baseline model will be validated against available data. A detailed plan leading to high-fidelity models including all critical blast response features including organ-to-organ and organ-to-bone interactions will be developed. Essential to these multi-phase project plans will be the identification of an appropriate code base for model creation, execution, and results extraction. The resulting licensable model(s) will find utilization by DoD and industry to help plan surface and undersea ordnance activities, as well as undersea construction and/or salvage operations.

Safety is paramount for DoD and contractor personnel conducting underwater explosive ordnance disposal. In order to create information needed for developing operating protocols including necessary stand-off distances and risk assessment of potential injuries, M4 Engineering will work with Virginia Tech to create a human lung and torso modeling capability for diver response to underwater explosions. Anatomically correct geometry will form the basis of the modeling efforts. The resulting finite element models will provide predictive calculations of lung response to underwater explosion (UNDEX) specified using typical UNDEX metrics. Phase II will build upon the Phase I modeling approaches and realized models to create high-fidelity anatomically correct models including with basic organ-to-organ and organ-to-bone interactions. The engineering results will be correlated with medical diagnoses to enable comparative assessments for different scenarios. In achieving such actionable injury assessments, sophisticated material modeling will be employed where appropriate. A limited set of physical testing will be conducted to help validate the modeling approaches. Additional validation will be sought using other available data. The resulting licensable model(s) will find utilization by DoD and industry to help plan surface and undersea ordnance activities, as well as undersea construction and/or salvage operations.