Characterizing the Ballistic Performance of Polystyrene Foam for the Development of Body Armor Mannequin

The SurvivabilityLethality Analysis Directorates Warfighter Survivability Branch designed a new ballistic mannequin for use in live-fire testing, constructed from 34-inch-thick plywood and rigid polystyrene foam. The objective of this test program was to construct an algorithm that uses fragment properties and depth of penetration in foamplywood to estimate a striking velocity. To determine the effects of the foam and plywood combination on the velocity retardation of penetrators, we shot five threats 2-, 4-, 16-, 64-, and 207-gr right circular cylinders at seven different foam and foam-plywood targets. From these data, we developed a two-factor power function relating fragment properties and depth of penetration to striking velocity.