Pulmo

Pulmo is an analysis software package for assessing human lung injuries, and lung injury mechanisms, due to explosive effects including underwater explosions.

Pulmo is developed as an analysis tool for predicting the response of the human lung to blast insults using high-fidelity torso, lung, and lung surrogate models. Pulmo uses advanced physics solvers, including K&C’s meshfree solver FEMFRE, as well as the LS-DYNA commercial software, to predict blast-lung response simulations needed for assessing lung injury risk or lung injury mechanisms.

 

The human lung is a vital organ that can be vulnerable to injuries when exposed to blast. While research on preventing lung injuries to airblast has been studied for some time now, research on lung injuries due to underwater explosions (UNDEX) are much less prevent. UNDEX engenders complex physics, physiology, and potentially exacerbated lung damage and injury mechanisms than those that occur with air blast insults. Lung injuries can range from local rigidity and discomfort, to hemorrhage, edema, contusions, and ruptures. Relative to air blast injuries, underwater blasts can propagate farther, couple more effectively with the human body (due to a closer matching of impedances to shock), induce complex loading effects like cavitation at fluid-tissue interfaces, and increase the overall severity and complexity of injuries.

 

Pulmo was developed as a computational tool that medical researchers, safety planners, and developers of personnel protection products can use to assess and mitigate the risk of injury from blast. The software was also designed with the goal of providing insight into the actual lung injury mechanisms governing injuries, using evolving technologies like high-resolution CT scan data and meshfree computational technology like those in FEMFRE.

Features

  • Upon loading Pulmo on a workstation, the user can define the blast type (airblast or underwater blast), charge and standoff, and the orientation of the human torso to the blast.
  • Pulmo allows the user to select from one of several high-fidelity lung models. The models range from a full 50th percentile male torso, to a high-resolution CT-scan-based lung model including the trachea, brionchioles, and lobe lung tissues (parenchyma). A general lung-sized rubber ball surrogate model is also available, which researchers have used to study lung response to UNDEX.
  • Bone, cartilage, and lung tissue model parameters are available for each model and are calibrated with data from K&C’s dynamic material characterization laboratory. The user can also enter their own material model parameters, using models like the Ogden hyperelastic model.
  • The computational models are automatically run and managed by Pulmo, on your laptop, or remotely on high-performance computing clusters.
  • The results can be visualized by the software using a responsive graphical user interface.

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50th percentile male torso with rib cage

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High-resolution lung model using CT-scan data

Compression Test on lung tissue surrogate material to obtain material model parameters

Benefits

  • Medical researchers, safety personnel, and personnel protection developers can leverage the latest advanced computational models, including human body models, solid dynamics, fluid dynamics, and fluid-structure interaction solvers.
  • The models and solvers are fully automated, so that user need not be an expert in running cumbersome physics-based simulation software.
  • Since physical experiments are limited, Pulmo provides an additional tool to provide insight into human injury risk and lung injury mechanisms.
  • The software is designed to be extensible, to expand and refine the human body models, expand the database of tissue models and properties, and to support additional physics solvers as needed to solve this challenging problem

DISCLAIMER

This material is based upon work supported by the US Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) or U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) under Contract No.W81XWH22C0078. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USAMRDC or USAMRAA.