Mechanism Behind Injuries

Body armour has been a part of soldier combat gear since the start of organized warfare. Definitely the modern armour is well equipped with high strength synthetic materials and protects the wearer against penetration injuries from bullets, knives etc. With such development, it has led to an increased use of armour not just by army personnel but law enforcement personnel as well.

Whenever we study about any ballistic protection vests etc., we read their functions, uses etc. But before understanding how exactly the body armour works, we must read about the mechanism of injuries from which the armour keeps the wearer safe.

The human body is sensitive and reacts quickly to any danger caused by penetration. It is clearly not made to resist any deep penetrative threats as these are not common in nature, so even a low-energy penetration could turn out to be fatal. High-velocity threats carry an additional probability that not only they cause a large wound cavity but will also result in excessive damage of tissues because of rapid transfer of energy during deep penetration. Contrary to this, human body is quite protected from blunt impacts, for example, a football approaching with approximately 200 joules. Also, human body is capable to withstand falls and car accidents up to 40 G.

So we can conclude from the above observations that human body should be firstly protected from any sort of projectiles and the energy transferred by them. Thus, armour should be strictly made not only to prevent penetration but should also nullify the effect of the energy and should dissipate and absorb that energy to contain the projectile.

If there’s anything that you would like to ask regarding body armours, feel free to leave a comment!