The wearing of body amour has become a necessity for many professions and muchwork has gone into the optimisation of the mechanics of protection. In the presentstudy a broader view of the effects of ergonomics, design, reliability and protectionhas been taken.Three background topics are examined by reference to the literature. First, as anexample of the threats and injury mechanisms that prevail in modern conflicts, theeffects of blast injury to the head are investigated. This is followed by a review ofergonomic test methods and is completed by a study exploring the influence of historyon modern body armour design.Solutions to some of these problems are then considered. The problem of accuratelymeasuring impact loads to the head is investigated and a rigid instrumented head formis demonstrated. This work showed that the filtering techniques derived from crashtests used in the current helmet standards are not applicable to ballistic impact events.A one day wearer trial for police armour based on typical actions carried out by policeofficers in the performance of their normal duties is developed and demonstrated. Amechanical flexibility test is shown to give quantitative data but a direct link betweenergonomic rankings and flexibility could not be established. Reliability of both softand hard body armour is investigated and for typical armour types it is demonstratedthat a minimal deterioration takes place with time and existing inspections techniquescan highlight armour that is below standard.This study has introduced measurement techniques in an attempt to quantify some ofthe effects investigated with the intention of using quantitative methods to improvearmour design and minimise some of the negative effects of wearing body armour.
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