Development of an automated assessment technology for detecting damage in body armour

Marks, Ryan, Grigg, Stephen, Crivelli, Davide, Pearson, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1625-3611, Eaton, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7388-6522, Llyr, Iestyn, McHugh, Martin, Wotherspoon, Tracy and Pullin, Rhys ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2853-6099 2020. Development of an automated assessment technology for detecting damage in body armour. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 234 , pp. 4116-4125. 10.1177/0954406220919454

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (320kB) | Preview

Abstract

Hard ballistic body armour plates are designed to withstand the impact of a bullet and protect the wearer, if this happens the armour is clearly damaged and so is retired from service. Mishandling, however, such as dropping the armour, may cause minor and difficult to detect damage which compromises the effectiveness of the plate. Current methods of inspection involve shipping the plates to a central location, performing a thorough inspection and returning them to service if uncompromised; this is costly and requires redundancy of equipment for when not in service. AcoustoUltrasonics is a method of structural health monitoring in which ultrasonic waves are excited in a structure by a transducer and receivers record the response, any deviation from a baseline measurement give an indication of damage within the structure. Within this paper the development and testing of a novel handheld prototype device is presented, which gives a simple yes/no answer to if there is damage on the plate. This inspection is quick and easy to perform by unskilled personnel. Low profile sensors have been utilised combined with a novel flexible circuitry with built in memory, which does not compromise the effectiveness of the armour.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Subjects:	T Technology > TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
Publisher:	SAGE
ISSN:	0954-4062
Funders:	Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), Innovate UK
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 April 2020
Date of Acceptance:	20 March 2020
Last Modified:	13 Nov 2023 16:38
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/131034

Citation Data

Cited 1 time in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item