Experimental Evaluation of Blast Loadings on the Ear and Head with and Without Hearing Protection Devices

This work will describe the experimental evaluation of blast loadings on post mortem human surrogates instrumented to obtain pressure and strain measurements at various locations as a precursor to studies on biological models to investigate neurological damage to the auditory cortex. The evaluation was conducted to validate improvements to auditory hazard models, and investigate the potential of bone conduction as a mechanism for propagating energy into the ear/head at levels sufficient to cause damage to components of the auditory system. The effectiveness of various hearing protection devices were investigated in a large shock tube at blast overpressures warfighters are typically exposed. Pressure measurements were made in the outer ear, middle ear, and within the cochlea using fiber optic pressure gages. Strain was monitored on the frontal and temporal bones. This work was supported by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command under Contract No. W81XWH-15-2-0002.