Blunt Trauma From Blast-Induced Building Debris

Protecting people from blast effects is a primary focus of current research. While direct blast effects can be injurious e.g., causing ear drum damage or, in the case of more severe pressures, lung damage, the primary injury mechanism for occupants of a building subjected to an external blast is blunt trauma, as structural, mechanical, and architectural elements of the building along with building contents such as furnishings are projected by the force of the blast and impact humans inside the building. To better understand the mechanics of these impacts, and to document the relationship between lethality and key parameters such as mass, velocity, and type of debris, a series of experiments were conducted in which instrumented anthropomorphic test devices ATDs were exposed to blast-induced debris. The tests focused primarily on glass debris from windows, and they also focused on blunt trauma to the head. An earlier paper 1 had presented some interim results from this test series along with tentative conclusions. Since then, additional tests have been conducted and the experimental database expanded significantly. This paper uses this augmented data set to draw broader conclusions and reinforce the earlier ones. Our intent is to utilize the various test results to assess the sensitivity of lethality to key parameters for typical windows.