Explosive Research: Team Wendy’s new approach to gathering data on blast force testing

ONR PANTHER research team, including Team Wendy’s Sushant Malave (back row, second from left) and Ron Szalkowski (back row, second from right)

ONR PANTHER research team, including Team Wendy’s Sushant Malave (back row, second from left)
and Ron Szalkowski (back row, second from right)

A soldier is riding in the back of a Humvee and there’s an explosion. It rocks the vehicle and the soldier hits his or her head.

The angle at which the soldier hits his head – combined with the speed in which it happens – raises questions about lasting impact on the brain. The answers to these questions are still not fully understood but ongoing research gives hope of one day getting fuller, more comprehensive answers.

In late August two engineers from Team Wendy traveled to Orlando to showcase new research into angular impact testing. They’re optimistic these tests better reflect the unpredictable nature of life in the field.

THE RESEARCH

Ron Szalkowski, Team Wendy’s director of product development and research collaboration, along with mechanical engineer Sushant Malave, attended the Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) at the Gaylord Palms Resort on Aug. 20 and 21.

MHSRS is the Department of Defense’s premier scientific meeting. It’s a venue for presenting new scientific knowledge resulting from military-unique research and development.

Team Wendy, together with the ONR PANTHER team, depicted research at two of the MHSRS poster sessions. One poster modeled what happens to the human brain in current military spec (blunt impact) testing. The second presented an algorithm for measuring head motion in impact.

Poster depicting brain response during current military spec testing

Poster presenting an algorithm for measuring head motion in impact testing

It was the first time Team Wendy engineers have publicly presented impact testing results on the head along with simulated brain response as a result of blunt impact testing. The takeaway? That the response was found to vary with impact velocity and location. There can be dramatic differences to the brain due to changing locations.

“In real life, acceleration and rotation vary and can impact the brain differently than something hitting you straight on,” Malave said.

Szalkowski echoed the statement.

“Moving your impact point 10 cm makes the effect completely different,” he said.

“What we need to do now is continue refining our understanding of the brain’s response and cellular injury risk so we can determine where injuries are likely occurring and how we can better protect people,” Szalkowski said.

A NEW ERA

Historically, blunt-impact helmet testing has focused on straight-ahead linear impacts. Testing angular impact is more indicative of real-world scenarios and Team Wendy engineers say we’ve only scratched the surface.

Team Wendy attended MHSRS amongst roughly 2,300 academics and representatives from the rehabilitative medicine industry.

“Our industry should be directly involved in this,” said Szalkowski.

The standard (linear) impact test

New rotational impact test

THE PANTHER PROJECT

The PANTHER program dates back to 2017. Team Wendy entered into the partnership with several research groups led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the goal of quantifying cellular injury thresholds for TBI and optimizing helmet testing and design methodologies around them. The program is funded by the Office of Naval Research.

The event in Orlando was the first time the whole PANTHER group assembled to publicly present data. Further research will be done on the long-term effect incidents have on the overall health of the brain.

Posted September 3, 2019

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Explosive Research: Team Wendy’s new approach to gathering data on blast force testing

THE PANTHER PROJECT