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Abstract. The development of a dynamic calibration standard for high-amplitude pressure piezoelectric transducers implies the implementation of a system which can provide reference pressure values with known characteristics and uncertainty. The reference pressure must be issued by a sensor, as a part of a measuring chain, with a guaranteed traceability to an international standard. However, this operation has not been completely addressed yet until today and is still calling further investigations. In this paper, we introduce an experimental study carried out in order to contribute to current efforts for the establishment of a reference dynamic calibration method. A suitable practical calibration method based on the calculation of the reference pressure by measurement of the displacement of the piston in contact with an oil-filled cylindrical chamber is presented. This measurement was achieved thanks to a high speed camera and an accelerometer. Both measurements are then compared. In the first way, pressure was generated by impacting the piston with a free falling weight and, in the second way, with strikers of known weights and accelerated to the impact velocities with an air gun. The aim of the experimental setup is to work out a system which may generate known hydraulic pressure pulses with high-accuracy and known uncertainty. Moreover, physical models were also introduced to consolidate the experimental study. The change of striker's velocities and masses allows tuning the reference pressure pulses with different shapes and, therefore, permits to sweep a wide range of magnitudes and frequencies.

Abstract.Since there is an increasing interest in avoiding human body injury in diverse situations like crowd control or peacekeeping missions, less lethal ammunition are more and more used. In this study we focus only on kinetic energy non-lethal (KENLW) projectiles. Their desired effects on human body are the temporary incapacitation through blunt trauma. There are different types of KENLW projectiles ranging from rigid to deformable projectiles. Unfortunately, the effects of such projectiles are not really well known as it is difficult to measure the force transmitted to the human body or the related deformation. Because the potential of injury excludes human living tests, tests are performed on cadavers, animals or human tissue surrogates. Besides these tests, numerical simulations are more and more used to gain more understanding, to assess or to predict the effects of this kind of projectile on human body. In this paper a comparison based on the viscous criterion between the 37 mm rigid projectile and the 40 mm sponge projectile was made.

Abstract. This article proposes a combined theoretical and experimental approach to assess and quantify the global uncertainty of a high-speed camera velocity measurement. The study is divided in five sections: firstly, different sources of measurement uncertainties performed by a high-speed camera are identified and quantified. They consist of geometrical uncertainties, pixel discretisation uncertainties or optical uncertainties. Secondly, a global uncertainty factor, taking into account the previously identified sources of uncertainties, is computed. Thirdly, a sensibility study of the camera set-up parameters is performed, allowing the experimenter to optimize these parameters in order to minimize the final uncertainties. Fourthly, the theoretical computed uncertainty is compared with experimental measurements. Good concordance has been found. Finally, the velocity measurement uncertainty study is extended to continuous displacement measurements as a function of time. The purpose of this article is to propose all the mathematical tools necessary to quantify the individual and global uncertainties, to highlight the important aspects of the experimental set-up, and to give recommendations on how to improve a specific set-up in order to minimize the global uncertainty. Taking all these into account, it has been shown that highly dynamic phenomena such as a ballistic phenomenon can be measured using a high-speed camera with a global uncertainty of less than 2%.

Kinetic energy non-lethal projectiles are used to impart sufficient effect onto a person in order to deter uncivil or hazardous behavior with a low probability of permanent injury. Since their first use, real cases indicate that the injuries inflicted by such projectiles may be irreversible and sometimes lead to death, especially for the head impacts. Given the high velocities and the low masses involved in such impacts, the assessment approaches proposed in automotive crash tests and sports may not be appropriate. Therefore, there is a need of a specific approach to assess the lethality of these projectiles. In this framework, some recent research data referred in this article as “force wall approach” suggest the use of three lesional thresholds (unconsciousness, meningeal damages and bone damages) that depend on the intracranial pressure. Three corresponding critical impact forces are determined for a reference projectile. Based on the principle that equal rigid wall maximal impact forces will produce equal damage on the head, these limits can be determined for any other projectile. In order to validate the consistence of this innovative method, it is necessary to compare the results with other existing assessment methods. This paper proposes a comparison between the “force wall approach” and two different head models. The first one is a numerical model (Strasbourg University Finite Element Head Model-SUFEHM) from Strasbourg University; the second one is a mechanical surrogate (Ballistics Load Sensing Headform-BLSH) from Biokinetics.

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