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

Creating New Auditory Standards Based on Biomechanics

The PCO is serving as an advisor for the project, "Biomechanically-Based Auditory Standard," sponsored by the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC). The three-year project, now in its final year, is developing a valid, biomechanically based computational model of blast-related auditory injury to serve as a replacement for Military Standard (MIL-STD) 1474D, "Design Criteria Standard, Noise Limits." MIL-STD 1474D is the Army medical community's assessment tool for auditory health risks associated with the use of weapon systems. The current project made significant progress in developing a biomechanically based model by leveraging an extensive historical archive of human volunteer and animal data. The data are used to refine and validate an existing auditory injury model known as the "Auditory Hazard Assessment Algorithm for Humans Model" (AHAAH) developed by the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL). The next steps are to document and publish the new model and discuss the model's use in health risk assessment with medical and weapons testing communities.

Last modified: 03-Apr-2023