A preliminary study into injuries due to non-perforating ballistic impacts into soft body armour over the spine

Abstract

The UK Home Office test method for ballistic protective police body armours considers anterior torso impacts to be the worst-case scenario and tests rear armour panels to the same standards as front panels. The aim of this paper was to examine the injuries from spinal behind armour blunt trauma (BABT) impacts. This study used a cadaveric 65 kg, female pig barrel and 9 mm Luger ammunition (9 × 19 mm, FMJ Nammo Lapur Oy) into HG1/A + KR1 soft armour panels over the spine. Injuries were inspected and sections removed for x-radiography and micro-CT assessment. All shots over the spine resulted in deep soft tissue injuries from pencilling of the armour and the shirt worn under the armour. The wounds had embedded fabric debris which would require surgery to remove resulting in increased recovery time over injuries usually seen in anterior torso BABT impacts, which are typically haematoma and fractured ribs. The shot with the deepest soft tissue wound (41 mm) also resulted in a fractured spinous process. Shots were also fired at the posterior and anterior rib area of the pig barrel, for comparison to the spine. Similar wounds were seen on the shots to the posterior rib area while shallower, smaller wounds were seen on the anterior and one anterior rib shot resulted in a single, un-displaced rib fracture. The anatomical differences between pigs and humans would most likely mean that injury to a human from these impacts would be more serious.

Forensic applications of micro-computed tomography: a systematic review

“…Micro-CT has been applied to evaluate the features of gunshot wounds on different bones (i.e., skull, scapulae, ribs, femurs, tibias, fibulae and vertebrae) [20][21][22][23][24].…”

Investigation of composite fabric impregnated with non-Newtonian fluid for protective textiles

“…Bending stiffness B is the mean of the two slopes where one is the gradient of the approximate straight line of the curve when tested fabric sample is bent on its forward travelling and the other is the gradient of the other approximate straight line when the fabric is bent on its returning to its original position. It can be calculated by equation (1). Higher B indicates greater resistance to bending motion.…”

“…Research work, both practical and theoretical, for the improvement of ballistic impact of body armour, as well as sportswear has been reported by many. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Various materials have been used for body armours. In modern body armour systems, fabrics still dominate, specially woven fabrics made of high-performance polymer fibres with high tenacity such as Twaron Õ , Kevlar Õ and Dyneema Õ .…”

Determination of the Worst Case for the Ballistic Test of the Soft Armour System Using the 9mm FMJ Bullets Differing in the Structure

“…In scientific research, in addition to plasticine and clay, gelatin [3][4], a phantom can imitate the human body form [5] or an animal model is used e.g., a cadaveric pig barrel was applied [6].…”