Exploring Feasibility of a Newly Designed Composite Face...

13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference 1

Exploring Feasibility of

a Newly Designed Composite Face Shield

in Mitigation for

Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury (bTBI)

KWONG MING TSE

(KM TSE)

13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

• Blast-Induced Injuries

➢ “signature injury of modern wars”

➢ 43% of the wounded in international

conflicts.

Source: the Defence and Veterans Brain Injury Centre

(DVBIC))

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Introduction

13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

Introduction

• Primary Blast Injury (induced by shock wave)

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13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

Introduction

• Primary Blast Injury (induced by shock wave)

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Blast Overpressure

(Shock wave)

13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

• Aims:

➢ To investigate the effectiveness of a sandwich-structured polycarbonate-

aerogel faceshield in mitigating bTBI.

➢ To provide insight in the design of a facial protective gear that can potentially

be useful to military personnel.

• Hypothesis:

➢ High acoustic impedance of aerogel would result in large acoustic mismatch

between its neighbouring laminate layers, reducing the amount of blast wave

transmission to the head.

Aims & Hypothesis

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13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

• Different Faceshield Designs

Method

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Singapore, A*Star,

Institute of High

Performing Computing

(IHPC) Head Model

13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

• Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) Method

➢ Eulerian: Air

➢ Lagrangian: Head, Helmet & other solid materials.

Method

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Blast waveform characteristic:

Friedlander’s waveform

Applied

Blast

Loading

Non-reflective & Free Outflow BC

13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

Results & Discussion

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13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

Results & Discussion

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13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

Results & Discussion

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Tse, K. M.*, Tan, L, B., Sappinggi, M. A. B., Franklyn, M., Lee, P.V.S., Tan, V. B. C. and Lee, H. P.* (2017). The role of a composite polycarbonate-

aerogel face shield in protecting the human brain from blast-induced injury: A fluid–structure interaction (FSI) study. Journal of Sandwich Structures &

Materials. (In Press)

Tan, L. B.*, Chew, F. S., Tse, K. M., Tan, V. B. C. and Lee, H. P. (2014). Impact of complex blast waves on the human head – a computational study. Int J

Numer Method Biomed Eng, 30 (12): pp. 1476-1505.

➢Sandwiched structured face shield of

polycarbonate and aerogel had significantly

reduced ICP.

PC exterior shell casing (structural

integrity)

Aerogel (high acoustic impedance to

blast wave)

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• National University of Singapore (NUS)

➢ Prof. Heow Pueh Lee

➢ Prof. Vincent Beng Chye Tan

➢ Dr. Long Bin Tan

• The University of Melbourne

➢ Prof Peter Vee Sin Lee

➢ Dr. Melanie Franklyn

Acknowledgement

13th Australasian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference

Ballistic Threat

Gas Gun

Kwong Ming TSE

tsekm.research@yahoo.com

Applied

Blast

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Blast ThreatSports-related TBI

Tse’s Computer Head Model

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The End

Email: tsekm.research@yahoo.com

Google Scholar:

http://scholar.google.com.sg/citations?user=EMERS88AAAAJ&hl=en

Researcher ID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/D-8669-2011

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8170-0775

PhD, National University of Singapore (2014)

Citations: 284 h-index: 8 i10-index: 7