TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2018//
TI  - Preliminary investigation of skull fracture patterns using an impactor representative of helmet back-face deformation
JO  - Military medicine
A1  - Weisenbach, Charles A.
A1  - Logsdon, Katie
A1  - Salzar, Robert S.
A1  - Chancey, Valeta Carol
A1  - Brozoski, Fredrick
SP  - 287
EP  - 293
VL  - 183
IS  - Suppl 1
N2  - Military combat helmets protect the wearer from a variety of battlefield threats, including projectiles. Helmet back-face deformation (BFD) is the result of the helmet defeating a projectile and deforming inward. Back-face deformation can result in localized blunt impacts to the head. A method was developed to investigate skull injury due to BFD behind-armor blunt trauma. A representative impactor was designed from the BFD profiles of modern combat helmets subjected to ballistic impacts. Three post-mortem human subject head specimens were each impacted using the representative impactor at three anatomical regions (frontal bone, right/left temporo-parietal regions) using a pneumatic projectile launcher. Thirty-six impacts were conducted at energy levels between 5 J and 25 J. Fractures were detected in two specimens. Two of the specimens experienced temporo-parietal fractures while the third specimen experienced no fractures. Biomechanical metrics, including impactor acceleration, were obtained for all tests. The work presented herein describes initial research utilizing a test method enabling the collection of dynamic exposure and biomechanical response data for the skull at the BFD-head interface.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0026-4075
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usx210
ID  - ref1
ER  -