Citation

Mahoney PF, Carr DJ, Miller D, Teagle M. Int. J. Legal Med. 2017; 131(6): 1765-1776.

Affiliation

Small Arms Experimental Range, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, SN6 8LA, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00414-017-1665-8

PMID

28815306

Abstract

The aim of this work was to simulate an overmatch ballistic event against a head wearing a helmet. The experiments were designed to understand how layers of bone (or synthetic bone), synthetic skin and currently used helmet materials influence the behaviour of full metal jacket mild steel core (FMJ MSC) 7.62 × 39 mm bullets, impacting on targets with a mean velocity of 650 m/s. Bullet behaviour within 10% (by mass) gelatine blocks was assessed by measurements made of the temporary cavity within the blocks using high-speed video and of the permanent cavity by dissecting blocks post firing. While ANOVA did not find significant difference at the 0.05 level in the mean values of most of the measurements, there was a significant difference in neck length within the gelatine blocks. The addition of material layers did produce greater variability in the temporary cavity measurements under some of the conditions. One of the synthetic bone polymers with a synthetic skin layer produced similar results within the gelatine blocks to the horse scapulae (with residual tissue) and may be suitable for future ballistic experiments.

Language: en

Keywords

7.62 × 39 mm bullet; Ballistic; Gelatine; Helmet; Synthetic bone; Synthetic skin