Validation of Roebuck 1518 synthetic chamois as a skin simulant when backed by 10% gelatin
- PDF / 288,650 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 13 Downloads / 161 Views
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Validation of Roebuck 1518 synthetic chamois as a skin simulant when backed by 10% gelatin Amy Pullen 1
&
David C. Kieser 1 & Gary Hooper 1
Received: 19 June 2020 / Accepted: 21 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Introduction Synthetic skin simulants are used both in wound ballistics and forensic investigations and should display similar mechanical properties to human tissue and therefore need to be validated. It is recognised that skin simulants may have a significantly different performance when different backing combinations are used; therefore, it is essential to specify and control the backing material. Roebuck 1518 synthetic chamois (RBK) backed by 20% ballistic gelatin has been validated as a suitable skin simulant; this study looks at validating the RBK simulant when backed by 10% ballistic gelatin. Methods Two layers of RBK synthetic chamois backed by calibrated 10% ballistic gelatin were placed onto the long face of the block and secured. Steel spheres with various sectional densities were fired using a custom-made gas gun to determine the V50 of the simulants and compared with the predicted V50. Results The results demonstrate that for a sectional density between 2.1 and 6.6 g/cm2, the skin simulants backed by 10% gelatin are within the 35% error bounds predicted by James’ patent equation. All samples had a close fit to the regression line (R2 = 0.9738), and a Spearman rho test indicates that there is a “strong” negative correlation between sectional density and the V50 (Rs =− 0.957, p = 0.00). Conclusions This validation study confirms that RBK synthetic simulant backed by 10% gelatin is a suitable skin simulant when testing non-deforming projectiles with sectional densities ranging from 2.1 to 6.6 g/cm2. A predictive trend line also indicates that the skin simulant is suitable for non-deforming projectiles with sectional densities ranging from 0.6 to 20 g/cm2 although this needs to be confirmed. Keywords Skin . Gelatin . Validation . Simulant . Synthetic
Introduction Simulants have a vital role to play in the analysis of wound and ballistics and forensic investigations. However, increasingly the ethical concerns of utilising cadaveric and animal tissue are deterring utilising them for ballistic research. Animal tissue is non-homogenous and has large variances; in contrast, synthetic simulants are physically homogenous and therefore are more likely to produce consistent results and statistically valid conclusions [1]. However, synthetic
* Amy Pullen [email protected] 1
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Musculoskeletal Medicine, Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago, P O Box 4545, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
simulants need to be validated, either by comparing their results to clinical cases and/or other animal models. For wound analysis and forensic investigation from ballistic impacts, human skin simulant is often necessary, and the ideal skin simulant should have similar mechanical properties to human sk
Data Loading...
