The Critical Role of a Backing Material in Assessing the Performance of Soft Ballistic Protection

Abstract Penetrating trauma by energised fragments is the most common injury from an explosive event. Fragment penetrations to truncal region can result in lethal haemorrhage. Personal armour used mitigate ballistic threats; it comprises hard protect high-velocity bullets and soft against other threats (such as a hand gun) with low impact velocities. Current testing standards for do not focus on realistic boundary conditions, backing material always recommended. This study provides comprehensive set of evidence support inclusion body armour. Experiments were performed gas-gun system using fragment-simulating projectiles (FSPs) different shapes sizes woven aramid knitted high-performance polyethylene fabric, without gelatine tissue simulant material. The results showed statistically significant differences velocities at 50% risk (V 50 ) fabric perforation across all test configurations when was used. Furthermore, enabled collection injury-related metrics such V tissue-simulant well depth penetration velocity. normalised energy absorbed could also be calculated present. confirms that essential, particularly assessing performance single layer fabrics FSPs mass. It demonstrates additional benefits provided predicting outcomes.