title: Firecracker eye exposure: experimental study and simulation.
abstract: Understanding the mechanisms of traumatic ocular injury is helpful to make accurate diagnoses before the symptoms emerge and to develop specific eye protection. The comprehension of the dynamics of primary blast injury mechanisms is a challenging issue. The question is whether the pressure wave propagation and reflection alone could cause ocular damage. To date, there are dissenting opinions and no conclusive evidence thereupon. A previous numerical investigation of blast trauma highlighted the dynamic effect of pressure propagation and its amplification by the geometry of the bony orbit, inducing a resonance cavity effect and a standing wave hazardous for eye tissues. The objective of the current work is to find experimental evidence of the numerically identified phenomenon. Therefore, tests aimed at evaluating the response of porcine eyes to blast overpressure generated by firecrackers explosion were performed. The orbital cavity effect was considered mounting the enucleated eyes inside a dummy orbit. The experimental measurements obtained during the explosion tests presented in this paper corroborate the numerical evidence of a high-frequency pressure amplification, enhancing the loading on the ocular tissues, attributable to the orbital bony walls surrounding the eye.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, 03043, Cassino, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Clemente
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80138, Naples, Italy. luca.esposito2@unina.it.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8482-356X
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, 03043, Cassino, Italy.
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Speranza
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, 03043, Cassino, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bonora
mesh_terms: D001753:Blast Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005131:Eye Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D009915:Orbit / Q000473:pathology; D011312:Pressure
keywords: Amplification; Experimental study; Orbital cavity; Pressure standing wave; Primary blast injury