Investigation of the high-strain rate (shock and ballistic) response of the elastomeric tissue simulant Perma-Gel®

Abstract

A B S T R A C TFor both ethical and practical reasons accurate tissue simulant materials are essential for ballistic testing applications. A wide variety of different materials have been previously adopted for such roles, ranging from gelatin to ballistics soap. However, while often well characterised quasi-statically, there is typically a paucity of information on the high strain-rate response of such materials in the literature. Here, building on previous studies by the authors on other tissue analogues, equation-of-state data for the elastomeric epithelial/muscular simulant material Perma-Gel ® is presented, along with results from a series of ballistic tests designed to illustrate its impact-related behaviour. Comparison of both hydrodynamic and ballistic behaviour to that of comparable epithelial tissues/analogues (Sylgard ® and porcine muscle tissue) has provided an insight into the applicability of both Perma-Gel ® and, more generally, monolithic simulants for ballistic testing purposes. Of particular note was an apparent link between the high strain-rate compressibility (evidenced in the Hugoniot relationship in the Us-up plane) and subsequent ballistic response of these materials. Overall, work conducted in this study highlighted the importance of fully characterising tissue analogues -with particular emphasis on the requirement to understand the behaviour of such analogues under impact as part of a system as well as individually.

Cranial trauma in handgun executions: Experimental data using polyurethane proxies

“…The largest round shot in our study was the .45 ACP (11.5 mm) which also had the most hydrostatic shock (Figure 7f). We compared our results with the ballistic study of Appleby-Thomas et al [42]. The amount of hydraulic burst on our three rounds was more extensive and could be attributed to the projectile type, as Appleby-Thomas et al [42] used 12 mm stainless steel spheres, which do not deform and have a large leading face.…”

High-velocity micro-projectile impact testing

“…Detachment of the projectile from the sabot can be facilitated by rifled barrels that impart spin and associated rotational KE. Studies are largely conducted to assess the ballistic resistance of materials and composites for protective purposes and for the fundamental understanding of material behavior under high-rate deformation and penetration (26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31).…”

Soft Tissue Simulants for Survivability Assessment—A Sustainability Focussed Review

“…Although 10 and 20% constructs are valid means by which to assess multiple technologies within both the defence and civilian research fields, Perma-Gel ® (shown in Figure 2) provides re-meltable and re-castable properties that reduce both project costs and environmental impacts yet has been reported to exhibit similar performance properties to both types of gelatine [20,21]. Perma-Gel can be categorised as a transparent synthetic thermoplastic material that is manufactured using gellants, mineral oil, and butylated hydroxytoluene [21]. Previous research has also shown that this material's response to impact is similar to that of other co-polymers of similar compositions [22].…”