Experiments and Mathematical Modeling for Evaluation of Non-Lethal Weapons

Other conference contribution, 2015

The biomechanical response of new and existing non-lethal weapons (NLWs) are to be determined to assess their effectiveness and safety, i.e. the type of injury produced and the risk of such injuries, for the target population and bystanders. The effect and risk of injury varies widely for most NLWs (from no effect to lethality) depending on how the weapon is used, the body region hit and variability in biomechanical response between humans. Commonly the effectiveness and safety provided by a particular NLW are assessed using real-life data from situations in which the NLW have been employed. However, for new NLWs it is necessary to conduct experimental studies using models of the human such as anthropometric tests devises (ATDs) and Human Body Models (HBM), post mortem human subjects (PMHSs), animals and cell cultures. While the assessment of possible NLW related injuries in ATDs and PMHSs are crude, animals and cell cultures are excellent for studies of injury mechanisms and injury criteria. For some injuries these mechanisms and criteria can be scaled to humans. The obtained data can also be used in the development of injury risk functions for humans but commonly require scaling. Several of the scaling techniques used in the past are crude. Computer simulation with finite element technique can be used to improve the understanding of experimental studies and to construct injury risk functions at tissue level using data from animal or cell culture experiments. The tissue risk functions can then be used in finite element models of humans to support the development of global injury criteria; to enable the evaluation of new NLWs using ATDs. In this paper we will describe animal models used to study mild and moderate brain injuries and associated finite element models. The paper aims at illustrating the benefit of combining models in biomechanics research and proving guidelines for such studies.