Blast-Induced Neurotrauma: Characterizing the Blast Wave Impact and Tissue Deformation

Primary blast injury, caused by exposure to the primary pressure wave emitted from explosive ordnance, is a common trauma associated with modern warfare activities. The central nervous system is particularly vulnerable to primary blast injury, which is responsible for many of the war related casualties and mortalities. An ex vivo model system is developed to introduce a blast wave, generated from a shock tube, directly to spinal cord tissue sample. A high-speed shadowgraphy is utilized to visualize the development of the blast wave and its interaction with the tissue samples. The surface deformation of the tissues is also measured for the analysis of internal stress and possible damage occurred in the tissue sample. Understanding the temporal development of the blast-tissue interaction provides valuable input for characterizing and modeling blast-induced neurotrauma. Particularly, tracking the sample surface deformation over time provides realistic boundary conditions for numerically simulating the injury and understanding the temporal development of stress.