Ribs, fabric and bullets

Started the research last week that I'll be finishing with Liz Girvan at The University of Otago in September and October as part of my Fellowship.

The aim of the work is to investigate debris in bony wounds - specifically ribs and is in collaboration with Professor Jules Kieser at Otago.

The work is considering clothing layers mounted on pig thoracic wall (skin, underlying tissue, ribs). We've been shooting at them using 9 mm x 19 mm FMJ and .357" Remington Magnum ammunition from a distance of 5 m. A great team effort with assistance from Dave Miller and Mike Teagle (Small Arms Experimental Range), and Alex Mabbott (one of our PhD candidates), Charlotte Mott (summer intern) and Steve Champion.

A couple of pictures for you to wet the appetite for when the paper is published :)

Wound Ballistics 12

On Friday (17 August 2012) Cranfield Defence and Security hosted an inaugral Wound Ballistics Symposium. My colleague Steve Champion and I have been talking about organsing this for around a year, and a visit from two researchers from New Zealand promoted us to put a date in the diary. All of the administration was wonderfully arranged by the Symposia at Shrivenham Office (thanks again to Michael, Lynn and Ryan). Sixty-seven attendees were treated to eight incredibly interesting invited presentations:

Keynote – From WOUNDMAN to COMPUTERMAN: A Whimsical Exploration. Leslie Payne, Ballistic Injury Archives.

Indirect Ballistic Skeletal Fracture: Can your Femur Fracture Even if a Bullet Does Not Hit the Bone? Captain Dr David Kieser, New Zealand Orthopaedic Association and New Zealand Defence Force.

Wound Ballistic Research: A Morphoscopic Approach. Professor Jules Kieser, University of Otago, New Zealand.

Design Validation of Future Cervical Ballistic Protection for the UK Soldier through the Development of a Novel Injury Model. Major Johno Breeze, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine.

A Forensic Investigation of Confined Space Blast. Dr Hasu Patel, Barts and The London and Steven Dryden, Metropolitan Police Service.

The 1968 Firearms Act: Minimum Lethality Requirements. Dr Derek Allsop, Cranfield University.

Examining the Consequences of Blast Injury to the Male External Genitalia. Wing Commander Davendra Sharma, St George’s Hospital.

Parametric Study on the Effect of Calibre on Wound Track, a Numerical Approach. Dr Amal Bouamoul, Defence Research and Development Canada.

A couple of pics (delegates, presenters; Crown Copyright, courtesy of Serco at the Defence Academy):

Blog now featured on Fellows' Travels page

My blog is now included on the Fellows' Travels page on the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust website :)

Fundamentals of body armour technology course 5-7 February 2013

Fundamentals of body armour technology course 
5-7 February 2013
Cranfield Defence and Security / Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

Wound Ballistics 12

Wound Ballistics 12

17 August 2012

Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

Subjects to be covered include, but are not limited to:

• physiological and psychological response to penetrating impact
• mechanisms of penetration
• modelling of wound formation / physical response
• comparison of real and simulated injuries
• laboratory re-creation of wounding
• the historical perspective

9 mm ammunition used for testing body armour

Based on Danielle Thomas' MSc thesis:

Thomas, D., Carr, D. J., Malbon, C. and Tichler, C. (2012). Within- and between-batch variation of 9 mm x 19 mm FMJ ammunition. Accepted for publication in AFTE Journal 44(3).

Bloodstains on fabrics paper

Based on Masters theses by Therese de Castro and Tania Nickson:

De Castro, T.C., Nickson, T., Carr, D.J. and Knock C. Interpreting the formation of bloodstains on selected apparel fabrics, accepted for publication in International Journal of Legal Medicine.