Experimental Study of the Correlation between Gastro-Intestinal Injury and Blast Loading.
Abstract
Simulated blast overpressure was generated in water-filled test chamber to study the gastrointestinal injury mechanism. High speed movies and pressure transducers were used to determine the physical and phenomenological aspects of blast injuries. To help understand the injury-loading relationship, bursting strengths for each part of the large intestine were measured under static pressurization. There appear to be no well-defined differences in bursting strengths between male and female, nor among the various weight adult rabbits. The results show that ascending colon has the highest bursting pressure followed by caecum, transverse colon, and descending colon. The bursting strength in terms of unit thickness, however, decreases systematically along the GI tract from caecum to descending colon. One of the crucial issues of using isolated GI tract for blast injury testing was whether adequate blood supply was provided to the test sections during the test. A perfusion technique using the test rabbit's own cardiopulmonary system as the source of blood supply was developed. Fluorescein tracer showed that except for a two inch descending colon section near the caudal mesentery artery, the GI tract was well-perfused. The approach appeared to be viable one, and was adopted for all subsequent tests. Correlation between surface deformation and pressure-time history across intestinal wall at the bubble was established.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADB103477
Entities
People
- Edward J. Vasel
- James H. Yu