Survey and analysis of measurements and injury criteria for Behind Armour Blunt Trauma (BABT)

BABT (Behind Armour Blunt Trauma) is the term for injury sustained when body armours defeat projectiles. The injuries are produced as a consequence of an energy transfer from the defeated projectile into the body. Currently, the possibility to measure body armour performance with regard to BABT is limited. This report presents a survey of the knowledge and research that has been done within the area of how to measure body armour performance with regard to BABT. The study is funded by FMV and includes a survey of current methods of measurement and associated criteria and gives a proposal of how a new method of measurement can be developed. Of the reviewed methods of measurement, a surrogate thorax, constructed to replicate the dynamic response of the body wall when subjected to this kind of load, seems to be the most promising method. Presently there are two alternative surrogate thoraxes developed but none of them are enough validated to be used as a method of measurement. Moreover it is not known which quantities, related to the body wall movement, that contribute to the extent of the injury and because of this there is no criterion based on these quantities. The report presents proposals of how a validated surrogate thorax and a related criterion can be developed.