US Department of Defense
BLAST INJURY RESEARCH
COORDINATING OFFICE
Advancing Blast Injury Research to Protect and Heal Those Who Serve

NATO Group Refines Framework for Computational Modeling of Blast Effects on the Human

On 10-12 July 2018, the PCO participated in the sixth, in-person meeting of the Human Factors and Medicine-270 (HFM-270) Research Task Group (RTG) titled, "Framework for Modeling and Simulation of Human Lethality, Injury, and Impairment from Blast-Related Threats." The meeting took place at the Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), Suffield Research Centre, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada.

The HFM-270 (RTG) Technical Team comprises 22 members from ten nations. Mr. Leggieri, the Director of the DoD Blast Injury Research Program Coordinating Office (PCO), chairs the Team, and his Deputy, Dr. Gupta, serves as the Team's Executive Secretary and computational modeling subject matter expert. The Team's objective is to develop a framework that integrates existing computational models and guides the development of future ones to predict human lethality, injury, impairment, and long-term health effects across the spectrum of blast-related threats. Once established, this computational modeling framework can support the rapid development and fielding of improved blast injury protection systems by providing a means for developing and testing protection concepts in a virtual environment.

During this meeting, Team members ran through a practical exercise in which they used a screening tool that they had previously developed to assess a candidate computational model to determine its feasibility for inclusion in the Framework. Through this practical exercise, the Team confirmed the suitability of the screening tool for assessing computational models. Following the practical exercise, subject matter experts from the DRDC Suffield Research Centre gave a series of presentations on the application of computational modeling to blast injury. The meeting concluded with an in-depth discussion of next steps in developing the computational modeling framework and creating an example threat scenario to demonstrate the framework's feasibility. Finally, the Team reviewed and revised the outline for the HFM-270 (RTG) final technical report that the Team will prepare and submit to the NATO Science and Technology Organization, Collaboration Support Office in the fall of 2019.

During the remaining three meetings of this Technical Team's three-year term, the Team will use the screening tool to assess existing computational models to determine their suitability for inclusion in the framework, demonstrate the feasibility of the framework using an example threat scenario, and draft the final technical report.

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HFM-270 (RTG) Technical Team
Last modified: 10-Sep-2018