The increased use of explosives in military conflicts has been linked to an increase in the

number of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Assessing the effectiveness of personal

protective equipment to mitigate TBIs requires both the ability to replicate the pressure

signatures caused by blast waves and an understanding of the interaction between blast

waves and human bodies. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to understand

the effect of varying different shock tube design parameters and to propose guidelines for

selecting shock tube designs to accurately replicate blast wave pressure signatures

representative of free-field explosive events. Additionally, a CFD model was developed to

represent a shock tube built to mimic the primary overpressure magnitude and impulse

loading on the human head surface as a result of free-field explosive events. This model

was used to aid in the understanding of flow within the shock tube, characterize the applied

pressure loading to a bare head form, augment experimental findings to fully understand

the influence of headborne systems on pressure applied to the human head, and support the

design of optimized laboratory test methodologies to represent a broad range of free-field

blast events.