Incapacitation Prediction for Readiness in Expeditionary Domains: an Integrated Computational Tool (I-PREDICT)

Purpose

This solicitation, issued by MTEC, represents a Request for Project Proposals (RPP) for MTEC’s support of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Incapacitation Prediction for Readiness in Expeditionary Domains: an Integrated Computational Tool (I-PREDICT) Force Health Protection Future Naval Capability (FNC) project. Strategic oversight for the award(s) supported by this RPP will be provided by the ONR Code 34 Warfighter Performance Department and its support team.

The purpose of the I-PREDICT FNC is to provide a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 in silico, “skin-in” integrated finite element computational model of the Warfighter’s body that will predict immediate injury and near term functional incapacitation (reduction in the ability to move, shoot, and/or communicate) resulting from exposure to specific military hazards. This particular solicitation is focused on acquiring a finite element computational model of the thorax to predict injury and functional incapacitation from behind armor blunt trauma, as an initial step toward whole-body modeling of responses to a variety of military hazards.

Experimentally derived injury risk criteria and functional incapacitation risk criteria will be used to evaluate the risk of thorax injury and its potential functional consequences. Wherever possible, injury risk criteria and incapacitation risk criteria will be identified from existing scientific literature on injury biomechanics relevant to the military population exposed to highrate loading threats and will employ associated validation datasets. Additional experimental work will be performed as part of the project to obtain more biofidelic high strain rate constitutive properties for organs and tissues of the thorax.

Points of Contact

For inquiries, please direct your correspondence to Biomedical Research Associate Chuck Hutti, Ph.D. at Chuck.Hutti@ati.org.