A flash bang is a non-lethal explosive device that delivers intensely loud bangs
and bright lights to suppress potentially dangerous targets. It is usually used in
crowd control, hostage rescue and numerous other missions. We construct a
model for assessing quantitatively the risk of hearing loss injury caused by
multiple flash bangs. The model provides a computational framework for incorporating
the effects of the key factors defining the situation and for testing
various sub-models for these factors. The proposed model includes 1) uncertainty
in the burst point of flash bang mortar, 2) randomness in the dispersion
of multiple submunitions after the flash bang mortar burst, 3) decay of acoustic
impulse from a single submunition to an individual subject along the
ground surface, 4) the effective combined sound exposure level on an individual
subject caused by multiple submunitions at various distances from the
subject, and 5) randomness in the spatial distribution of subjects in the crowd.
With the mathematical model formulated, we seek to characterize the overall
effect of flash bang mortar in the form of an effective injury area. We carry
out simulations to study the effects of uncertainty and randomness on the risk
of hearing loss injury of the crowd. The proposed framework serves as a
starting point for a comprehensive assessment of hearing loss injury risk, taking
into consideration all realistic and relevant features of flash bang mortar.
It also provides a platform for testing and updating component models.
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