An Assessment of Non-Lethal Weapons Science and Technology (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C: Discussion of Health Effects of Non-Lethal Weapons
Appendix C: Discussion of Health Effects of Non-Lethal Weapons
Pages 148-165
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From page 148... ...
Thus, the dilemma or challenge is to identify susceptibilities of the human to the potential energy forms and to design non-lethal weapons systems that operate within the bounds of effectiveness well short of permanent damage. Initial guidance on the avoidance of permanent damage has been gleaned from the knowledge base for automotive crash tolerance limits for kinetic-energy weapons and from occupational or public exposure limits that have been developed for lasers, other forms of light, acoustic and electrical sources, chemicals, and microwaves.
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From page 149... ...
Instead, human tolerance needs to be defined in terms of a probability of injury for the population for a given input parameter, such as the force of impact. The current approach is to employ a statistical technique known as Logist analysis, which uses available experimental data to determine the likelihood of injury to the general population.
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From page 150... ...
1972. "Impact Response of the Human Thorax," Proceedings of the Human Impact Response Measurement and Simulation Symposium, General Motors Research Laboratories, October 2-3, 1972, Plenum Press, New York-London.
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From page 151... ...
1972. "Impact Response of the Human Thorax," Proceedings of the Human Impact Response Measurement and Simulation Symposium, General Motors Research Laboratories, October 2-3, Plenum Press, New York-London.
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From page 152... ...
King4 for what is known about automotive-related impact injury mechanisms. Several examples illustrate biomechanical aspects of blunt impact injury.
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From page 153... ...
The velocity of the abdominal wall is also a factor in causing the organ to rupture. In contrast, the risk of spinal injury is very low; in fact, it is virtually impossible to rupture an intervertebral disc in the neck or lumbar spine with any kind of a single impact to the body unless there is a massive fracture of vertebral bodies immediately adjacent to the disk.5 Because of the eye's fragile structure and high deformability, any increase in ocular pressure due to impact by a blunt projectile can cause permanent injury to several different parts of the eye.
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From page 154... ...
1986. "An Experimental Investigation of the Biokinetic Principles Governing Non-Penetrating Impact to the Chest and the Influence of the Rate of Body Wall Distortion upon the Severity of Lung Injury," Proceedings of the IRCOB1 European Impact Biomechanics Conference, Zurich, Switzerland.
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From page 155... ...
1986. "Interrelationship of Velocity and Chest Compression in Blunt Thoracic Impact to Swine II," 30th Proceedings of the Stapp Conference, SAE Paper No.
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From page 156... ...
The impact of sting balls on pig eyes is also being studied. Research on intestinal injury due to a pressure wave has been conducted by Yu et al.9 Mathematical and Mechanical Models The only mathematical model used extensively by the military for the prediction of human effects due to kinetic-energy rounds is the Interim Total Body Model developed by Jaycor for the Army.
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From page 157... ...
The potential combinations of the many critical body regions with at least half a dozen different types of kinetic-energy munitions call for the development of a unifying method of tackling this problem, such as the formulation of a comprehensive finite element model of the human body, capable of simulating impacts by these munitions. During the development of such a model, the needed material parameters would be identified, and running portions of the model to simulate regional impact would identify the types of experiments needed to generate the necessary data for the material constants and for validation of the model.
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From page 158... ...
Only a few of these munitions have been tested on live animals and human cadavers, and there is no overall understanding regarding human tolerance as a function of the mass and velocity of a round. In fact, the scaling of tolerance data from the animal to the human has not been very successful in low-velocity blunt impacts simulating automotive collisions; cadaveric data were found to be much more reliable in defining human tolerance.
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From page 159... ...
In the face of a large multitude of munitions of varying mass and velocity, it is necessary for the non-lethal weapons community to develop a more sophisticated computer model that could simulate a wide range of blunt impacts. One promising approach is to take an existing finite element model of the human body used in automotive safety research and adapt it to simulate the impact of kinetic-energy munitions.
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From page 160... ...
Recent developments in broadening the bandwidth of RF generators and the development of systems capable of producing very short pulses and very high peak power provide a glimpse into the vast, unexplored region of biological effects or human susceptibilities and potential avenues for NLWs. With such new technologies, the body would be exposed to both low- and high-frequency energy as well as to very high peak powers at some frequencies.
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From page 161... ...
systems that operate at wavelengths between 180 rim and 1 mm. To exploit lasers for use as NLWs to their maximum potential, specific programs will be required to evaluate the susceptibilities of humans to a wide range of modalities at eye-safe light intensities.
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From page 162... ...
The demonstrated psychological effects related to illuminating human targets in Somalia illustrate the desirability of an accompanying psychological line of study. C.5 ACOUSTIC NON-LETHAL WEAPONS Non-lethal acoustic weapons have been discussed at great length in the literature as having the potential for being able to change behavior.
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From page 163... ...
C.7 BARRIERS AND ENTANGLEMENTS Effect of Barriers and Entanglements Most barriers and entanglement systems are designed for area denial to personnel and/or vehicles, including ships and boats. Barriers that present concerns regarding human effects include caltrops, concertina wires, webshots and entanglement grenades, tire spikes, and portable vehicle arresting barriers (PVABs)
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From page 164... ...
While webshots and entanglement grenades appear to present a very low probability of permanent injury, prevention of a severe head injury is nevertheless difficult in this situation and the state of the art in computer modeling of this event is currently unable to simulate human muscular response, particularly since it is totally unpredictable. The injury mechanisms involved in the use of tire spikes and PVABs are the same as those observed in automotive crashes.
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From page 165... ...
Confusion, temporary memory, and additional stages of neural disruption might be assisted by the application of multiple stimuli, properly timed. The demonstrated psychological effects related to illuminating human targets in Somalia demonstrate the need for an accompanying psychological line of study.
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