Blast Wave Dynamics at the Cornea as a Function of Eye Protection Form and Fit

A shock tube and anthropomorphic headforms were used to investigate eye protection form and fit using eyewear on the Authorized Protective Eyewear List in primary ocular blast trauma experiments. Time pressure recordings were obtained from highly linear pressure sensors mounted at the cornea of instrumented headforms of different sizes. A custom shock tube produced highly reliable shock waves and pressure recordings were collected as a function of shock wave orientation and protective eyewear. Eyewear protection coefficients were calculated as a function of a new metric of eyewear fit. In general, better protection was correlated with smaller gaps between the eyewear and face. For oblique angles, most spectacles actually potentiated the blast wave by creating higher peak pressures at the cornea. Installing foam around the perimeter of the spectacle lens to close the gap between the lens and face resulted in significantly lower pressure at the cornea. In conclusion, current eye protection, which was designed to reduce secondary and tertiary blast injuries, provides insufficient protection against primary blast injury.