A HUMAN surrogate, or isomorph, is being developed by Australian defence
scientists to help them work out how bomb blasts kill.
“There is a huge need for dummies that work well in a blast situation,” says
Tom Gibson, the director of Sydney-based Human Impact Engineering. Bomb blasts
cause high-intensity pressure waves that can inflict fatal internal injuries as
they pass through the body—and badly constructed body armour can actually
make matters worse. But crash-test dummies are unsuitable for testing body
armour. “You can’t measure any pressure effects because they have no liquid in
them,” says Alex Krstic, isomorph project…
