When backyard fun turns to trauma: risk assessment of blunt ballistic impact trauma due to potato cannons

Frank, Matthias; Jobski, Oliver; Bockholdt, Britta; Großjohann, Rico; Stengel, Dirk; Hinz, Peter

doi:10.1007/s00414-011-0552-y

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…This leads to significant mechanical trauma to the eye as well. 20 Several videos on social media explain how these guns can be made at home with plastic materials. Unfortunately, these social media videos do not describe the possible deleterious effects of using these guns for recreational activities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbide Gun-Related Ocular Injuries: A Case Series

Arora

Priyadarshini

Das

et al. 2022

Cornea

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The purpose of this study was to report a case series of sight-threatening ocular injuries caused by calcium carbide guns used as fire crackers.Methods: Medical records of 15 eyes of 14 patients with ocular injuries caused while using carbide guns, visiting the Institute, from January 2021 to January 2022, were retrospectively reviewed. The collected data included patients' demography (age, sex), presenting ophthalmic features, management, and outcome. Grade I and II ocular injuries were managed medically. All grade III-V injuries were managed using Amniotic Membrane Transplantation.Results: All patients were male. The mean age of the patients was 23.57 6 11.76 years. According to the Dua classification, 5 eyes (33.3%) had Grade I-II ocular surface burns, 3 eyes (20%) had grade III burns, and 7 eyes (46.6%) had grade IV-VI burns. Presenting visual acuity ranged between hand movements to 20/50, and in 6 eyes (40%), the visual acuity was #20/200. Five eyes were managed medically alone, and 10 (66.6%) eyes needed surgical intervention (Amniotic Membrane Transplantation). After a mean follow-up of 14.23 6 11.92 weeks, complete epithelization was seen in 10 eyes (66.6%). Partial limbal stem cell deficiency and its sequelae such as conjunctivalization of the cornea were noted in 7 eyes (46.6%).Conclusions: Calcium carbide-related ocular injuries can result in corneal blindness secondary to limbal stem cell deficiency in young individuals. Loss of vision in this age group can lead to loss of economic productivity and cosmetic disfigurement. More advocacy efforts are thus needed to prevent these injuries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbide Gun-Related Ocular Injuries: A Case Series

Arora

Priyadarshini

Das

et al. 2022

Cornea

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“…The rank order of efficiencies corresponds to the muzzle and mid-barrel velocities of the projectile. Careless handling of a potato cannon could cause serious injury or death (Frank 2012). Potatoes launched with acetylene were also destructive to wooden boards and plastic objects initially employed as backstops before transitioning to 6mm thick steel plate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying the internal ballistics of a combustion-driven potato cannon using high-speed video

Courtney¹,

Courtney

2013

Eur. J. Phys.

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A potato cannon was designed to accommodate several different experimental propellants and have a transparent barrel so the movement of the projectile could be recorded on high-speed video (at 2000 frames per second). Both combustion chamber and barrel were made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Five experimental propellants were tested: propane (C 3 H 8 ), acetylene (C 2 H 2 ), ethanol (C 2 H 6 O), methanol (CH 4 O), and butane (C 4 H 10 ). The amount of each experimental propellant was calculated to approximate a stoichometric mixture and considering the Upper Flammability Limit (UFL) and the Lower Flammability Limit (LFL), which in turn were affected by the volume of the combustion chamber. Cylindrical projectiles were cut from raw potatoes so that there was an airtight fit, and each weighed 50 (± 0.5) grams. For each trial, position as a function of time was determined via frame by frame analysis. Five trials were taken for each experimental propellant and the results analyzed to compute velocity and acceleration as functions of time. Additional quantities including force on the potato and the pressure applied to the potato were also computed. For each experimental propellant, average velocity vs. barrel position curves were plotted. The most effective experimental propellant was defined as the one which accelerated the potato to the highest muzzle velocity. The experimental propellant acetylene performed the best on average (138.1 m/s), followed by methanol (48.2 m/s), butane (34.6 m/s), ethanol (33.3 m/s), and propane (27.9 m/s), respectively.Propellant Acetylene 10894 513 4.71 Propane 9302 21 0.23 Ethanol 9078 29 0.32 Methanol 10140 66 0.65 Butane 9273 33 0.35 Combustion Energy (J) Projectile Muzzle Energy (J) Efficiency (%)

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“…Although it is of lightweight, sUAS may still result in considerable human body injury by impact. According to Frank et al., 6 a 2-kg object, with 11 m/s speed, could cause severe injury to the human body and in the research of Henderson et al., 7 80 J kinetic energy can be considered as critical energy for fatality. Some other studies also show that an object (0.5 kg, with kinetic energy 50 J) could cause 10% possibility of fatality, and the fatality chance will increase to 90% if the energy of this object is 200 J.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the motion of small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) due to ground collision

Dori

Divo

et al. 2017

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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The aim of this paper is to develop a modeling method in order to predict the rebounce distance of a small size unmanned aerial system (sUAS) after collision with the ground. This distance would be useful to determine the safe range on the ground when operating the UAS. A two-step strategy is developed to model this procedure. In step one, numerical simulations are performed to model the first impact and predict the rebounce angle and impact velocity. Based on the information obtained, in step two, an analytical model is employed to calculate the rebounce distance without running numerical simulations, to save the computational time. Based on the model predictions, a non-linear function (known as a Meta model) is established to describe the rebounce behavior as a function of impact parameters, i.e. impact velocity, angle, and friction coefficient between the vehicle and ground. A correlation analysis is further performed to analyze the effect of these parameters on the response. The results show that the maximum rebounce range could be greater than 10 m. Compared to impact angle and friction coefficient, impact velocity is the most significant factor influencing the rebounce range. The larger velocity, smaller impact angle, and smaller ground friction coefficient would lead to the large rebounce range. The established Meta model would be useful to estimate safety range when operating sUAS platforms.

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When backyard fun turns to trauma: risk assessment of blunt ballistic impact trauma due to potato cannons

Cited by 7 publications

References 18 publications

Carbide Gun-Related Ocular Injuries: A Case Series

Carbide Gun-Related Ocular Injuries: A Case Series

Studying the internal ballistics of a combustion-driven potato cannon using high-speed video

Modeling the motion of small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) due to ground collision

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