Similitude assessment method for comparing PMHS response data from impact loading across multiple test devices

Area of Science:

• Injury Biomechanics
• Biofidelity Response Corridors (BRCs)
• Biological Tissue Testing

Background:

• Biological tissue testing exhibits significant specimen-to-specimen variability.
• Biofidelity Response Corridors (BRCs) are crucial for encapsulating this variability.
• BRCs are essential for developing and validating physical and computational injury biomechanics models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To generate biofidelity response corridors (BRCs) for post-mortem human surrogates under under-body blast loading conditions.
• To develop a statistically sound and objective method for assessing response similitude across different test devices.
• To ensure BRCs primarily reflect biological variability, not test device artifacts.

Main Methods:

• Post-mortem human surrogates were tested under various under-body blast loading conditions.
• Testing was conducted across multiple impact test facilities with slight variations in test devices.
• A novel method was developed to assess the similitude of responses between different test devices for BRC inclusion.

Main Results:

• A method for assessing response similitude between test devices was successfully created.
• This metric allows for the objective inclusion of responses into BRCs.
• The method helps differentiate biological variability from test device-induced anomalies.

Conclusions:

• The developed method provides a statistically sound approach to ensure BRCs represent true biological variability.
• This enhances the reliability of BRCs used in injury biomechanics research and model validation.
• Objective assessment of response similitude is key to creating robust biofidelity response corridors.