Abstract
Penetrating trauma by energized fragments is the most common injury from explosive devices, the main threat in the contemporary battlefield. Such devices produce projectiles dependent upon their design, including preformed fragments, casings, glass, or stones; these are subsequently energized to high velocities and cause serious injuries to the body. Current body armor focuses on the essential coverage, which is mainly the thoracic and abdominal area, and can be heavy and cumbersome. In addition, there may be coverage gaps that can benefit from the additional protection provided by one or more layers of lightweight ballistic fabrics. This study assessed the performance of single layers of commercially available ballistic protective fabrics such as Kevlar®, Twaron®, and Dyneema®, in both woven and knitted configurations. Experiments were carried out using a custom-built gas-gun system, with a 0.78-g cylindrical steel fragment simulating projectile (FSP) as the impactor, and ballistic gelatine as the backing material. FSP velocity at 50% risk of material perforation, gelatine penetration, and high-risk wounding to soft tissue, as well as the depth of penetration (DoP) against impact velocity and the normalized energy absorption were used as metrics to rank the performance of the materials tested. Additional tests were performed to investigate the effect of not including a soft-tissue simulant backing material on the performance of the fabrics. The results show that a thin layer of ballistic material may offer meaningful protection against the penetration of this FSP. Additionally, it is essential to ensure a biofidelic boundary condition as the protective efficacy of fabrics was markedly altered by a gelatine backing.
Highlights
Penetrating trauma due to energized fragments is the most common cause of injury from an explosive event (Bowyer, 1996; Hill et al, 2001; Covey, 2002; Champion et al, 2009; Eastridge et al, 2012)
Material perforation and any gelatine penetration occurred in all tests whose fragment simulating projectile (FSP) impact velocities were between 92 and 258 m/s
There is an overall trend that the higher the areal density, the better the ballistic fabric can reduce depth of penetration (DoP) in gelatine [category (d)], in other words result in shallower penetration
Summary
Penetrating trauma due to energized fragments is the most common cause of injury from an explosive event (Bowyer, 1996; Hill et al, 2001; Covey, 2002; Champion et al, 2009; Eastridge et al, 2012). Assessment of Single-Layer Ballistic Materials (incidental, secondary fragments) such as glass shards and debris from collapsed structures, or even foreign bone fragments from other victims (Hull, 1992; Abbotts et al, 2007; Brunner et al, 2015; Dick et al, 2018; Kalem and Ercan, 2018). They are propelled and accelerated by the energy of the explosion to an initial velocity of the order of 1000 m/s, quickly decelerate. Fragment penetrations can result in lethal hemorrhage in the truncal region (Eastridge et al, 2012; Breeze et al, 2016); the most commonly affected body regions have been shown to be the extremities and the head (Owens et al, 2008; Breeze et al, 2015; Penn-Barwell et al, 2015). Owens et al (2008) reported that of 5,155 combat wounds by an explosive mechanism (78% of all injuries) in the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, 44% were to the extremities and 26% were to the head and neck area. Penn-Barwell et al (2015) found that 70% of 2,792 United Kingdom combat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2012 were caused by explosions with 43% to the extremities and 24% to the head and neck region. Breeze et al (2015) showed that lower extremities and face are the most penetrated regions by blast fragments; they demonstrated that the use of personal armor can reduce effectively the number of injuries
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