Protective Performance of Helmet Based on Blast Shock Wave

doi:10.12382/bgxb.2022.0553

Abstract

Abstract: To deal with the problem of blast shock wave causing traumatic brain injury, the protective performance of helmets based on blast shock waves was investigated. Combined with the pressure sensor and the head surrogate as the simulation target, the test method of protection against blast shock waves for different helmet structures and different positions in the helmet was developed. The pressure-time curves of the forehead, calvaria and back of head were obtained and the propagation principle of the blast shock wave on the surface of head with or without protection in the experiment were analyzed. The results showed that the helmets can effectively attenuated the peak overpressure of shock waves. The peak overpressure on the forehead could be attenuated from 352.57 kPa without helmet to 151.31 kPa with QGF-03 helmet and to 11.36 kPa with the full-face helmet. At the same time, the shock waves were prone to diffraction and superposition/convergence during the propagation in the head surrogate with helmet. The peak overpressure of the back of head with QGF-03 helmet and FAST helmet respectively increased by 50%-100% and 9% compared to the situation without helmet, and the duration of overpressure on head with helmet was significantly increased. The mask could significantly reduce the effect of the blast shock wave on the head and the peak overpressure of the shock wave on the forehead and face could be attenuated by 75%. The full-face helmet had the best protection effects and the peak overpressure on forehead, calvaria and back of head were respectively reduced by 90%, 87% and 80%. Moreover, the airtightness has a positive effect on protection against shock waves.

Key words: traumaticbraininjury, helmetprotection, headsurrogate, overpressureofshockwave

CLC Number:

O389

WU Yang, QIN Bin, WANG Shu, XIONG Manman, AN Shuo, LU Haitao, ZHANG Xianfeng. Protective Performance of Helmet Based on Blast Shock Wave[J]. Acta Armamentarii, 2022, 43(9): 2121-2128.

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