March 04, 2025
Mizzou researchers look at how to mitigate acoustic and electromagnetic waves’ impact on the human body.
Modern warfare is constantly evolving, and today’s soldiers face new, invisible dangers. In recent conflicts, more and more soldiers are experiencing trauma not from bullets and shrapnel but from the shockwaves of nearby explosions.
Now researchers in the Mizzou College of Engineering are studying how acoustic and electromagnetic waves (EMP) impact the human body. Their work is crucial in developing solutions to protect those in harm’s way.
“Historically, when people think about protecting soldiers in warfare, it’s always about the physical injury — a bullet or shrapnel hitting the body. But since World War II, a big source of bodily harm isn’t just these physical attacks but the acoustic waves from explosives,” Christopher O’Bryan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, said.
Other members of the research team are Scott Thompson, associate professor with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE); Omar Ibrahim, post-doctoral fellow in MAE; and doctoral students Mujtaba Ghoto and Mohammed Khairuzzaman.
The Mizzou Engineers are collaborating with researchers at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and the Army Research Lab.
Acoustic waves are all around us. Most of us can hear them, but we can also feel them, like thunder or the bass from a stereo.
EMPs can occur naturally — think solar flares — or as a side-effect of everyday technology like cell phones, fluorescent lights and microwave ovens. Increasingly, however, they are being weaponized to attack military targets.
“A high-frequency electromagnetic burst can make a drone fall out of the sky, but what happens when that burst hits a person?” Thompson said. “That’s what we want to know, as well as the threshold of when these waves go from unharmful to harmful. The same types of waves are used in ultrasounds, which are safe procedures. At what level does exposure to them become harmful?”
To complete their tests, the researchers are first designing anthropomorphic 3D-printed models to simulate human tissues, some of which are a million times softer than traditional mechanical engineering materials.
“We can print biopolymers, hydrogels and living cells, but once they’re printed, they’re so soft they can’t support their own weight,” O’Bryan said. “The challenge is building something out of material that’s that soft.”
Once built and calibrated, these models will serve as the test bed for the development of countermeasures. The goal is to save lives, whether in combat or civilian applications.
“What we find out might help protect construction workers or football players,” Thompson said. “There are also medical applications. Specifically in cancer treatment or identifying tumors, or this work could lead to producing tissue models for medical students to practice surgery, or for testing new imaging methodologies.”
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