Development of a High-Fidelity DoD 5th Percentile Female Finite Element Model

Corvid Technologies, LLC (Corvid) and Zygote Media Group (Zygote) propose to develop a high-fidelity 5th percentile female finite element (FE) model of the human body capable of injury prediction for evaluation of aircraft safety systems performance during dynamic loading events.  The proposed approach will utilize female-specific computer aided design (CAD) geometries based upon medical imaging data from female subjects to ensure accurate creation of the virtual female model.  Corvid is uniquely positioned to efficiently accomplish the objectives of this topic due to its previous involvement in the development of the Computational Anthropomorphic Virtual Experiment MAN (CAVEMAN) high-fidelity male human body model developed for human injury prediction for the Department of Defense, years of experience in modeling and simulation of human injury risk, and its in-house, high-performance computing (HPC) resources and software development capabilities.  Partnership with Zygote will provide valuable access and insight into the female specific CAD and expertise necessary to ensure the final FE model truly represents the female form. To develop the high-fidelity 5th percentile female model, Phase I efforts will utilize a combination of CAD generation, meshing, and morphing techniques.  The proposed solution will leverage and build upon existing anatomy and FE models on hand to accelerate the development of the female FE model.  Zygote currently has CAD developed for the female integumentary system, skeletal system, and organs derived directly from female medical anatomy scans.  The muscular tissue is more difficult to segment from medical imaging data as distinct boundaries for each muscle are often difficult or impossible to recognize.  Thus, the existing CAVEMAN musculature will be morphed into the female form using the female skin and skeletal CAD for guidance.  The morphed soft tissues will then be compared to the female medical imaging data and modified as necessary to align with the soft tissue landmarks.  Upon completion of this process, the high-fidelity female FE model will have distinct meshed parts for all bones, muscles, ligaments, cartilage, organs, and skin tissues within the human body developed from female medical imaging data.  The mesh model will be combined with validated biological materials models and assembled using accurate soft tissue insertions to complete the high-fidelity 5th percentile female model.  The proposed effort will utilize the same techniques applied within the CAVEMAN model to establish parity in the development of the Computational Anthropomorphic Virtual Experiment WOMAN (CAVEWOMAN) model under this SBIR effort.  This will provide a solid foundation moving into Phase II to apply existing repositioning, scaling, and muscle activation methods, resulting in a family of validated, posable, high-fidelity female human body models capable of injury predictions with both active and passive musculature.