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The WIAMan Project | 12 Years Later

  • Writer: John Moors
    John Moors
  • Dec 1, 2024
  • 2 min read

Updated: Dec 12, 2024




I began my work in the WIAMan Project back in 2012 as I was getting ready to graduate college. At the UVa Center for Applied Biomechanics in Charlottesville, Virginia (we called it the CAB), our team was helping to validate the dummy design as it was being developed. Since then, the dummy has gone into production at Diversified Technical Systems (DTS) and has been instrumental in the mission to better understand the injuries sustained by under body blasts (UBB) in combat zones.

Photo Credit: Lance Cpl. Scott Jenkins/Marine Corps
Photo Credit: Lance Cpl. Scott Jenkins/Marine Corps

As mentioned in my history, this was a very personal project. When I joined UVa, I knew people deployed in combat zones where IED's were awaiting them in the dirt roads, city alleys, and patrol routes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Anything to help protect our people abroad was meaningful, and I was excited to be involved.




Analysis Tools

What has the department of defense gained? Quite a bit. Here's one example. 10 years after my first encountered the project, in 2022, the dummy provided a tool for the Army DEVCOM. The DEVCOM Analysis Center (DAC) developed a software analysis tool to manage the injury data from the manikin. This tool was named the Analysis of Manikin Data, or AMANDA, and on Feb 2nd, 2022, the tool got the stamp of validation for use. [U.S. Army]



Injury Data

So, what about those injuries? Papers continue to be written on this of course, and it's likely much of the actionable info may not be made public. This 2016 paper was approved for public distribution and focused on the Lumbar Spine. [U.S. Army Research Lab]

Figure: Optimized WIAMan lumbar spine force transmission results and corresponding CORA scores. Adapted from Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin (WIAMan) Lumbar Spine Model Validation (AD1013367), U.S. Army Research Laboratory, 2016.
Figure: Optimized WIAMan lumbar spine force transmission results and corresponding CORA scores. Adapted from Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin (WIAMan) Lumbar Spine Model Validation (AD1013367), U.S. Army Research Laboratory, 2016.

Vehicle Structure Analysis

To better protect our servicemembers, isn't the point to better design the military ground vehicles? Yes indeed. While much of those design changes would of course be classified, it's encouraging to see the data being used for finite element modeling (FEM) to compare structures in a vehicle. These improvements can protect our troops and allies in the field.


If you'd like to dig deeper, I'd encourage looking into this report [Underbody Blast Methodology: A Modular Approach to Simulating Buried Blast Effects].

Figure: Notional Example of a Structure Evaluated via UBM Simulation to Consider Two Different Material Types (Source: ARL).
Figure: Notional Example of a Structure Evaluated via UBM Simulation to Consider Two Different Material Types (Source: ARL).

Moving Forward

Many people, research labs and companies in the private sector contributed to this effort. As you can tell, it took multiple years to get meaningful results. But we can be proud of these results. Once an IED detonates, it's too late to reroute, to send return fire, to pull troops back from harm's way. It's a dark, deeply menacing threat. Any steps that diminish its ability to harm, kill, and psychologically damage its targets is indeed well worth the effort.


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