Experimental impacts of less lethal rubber spheres on a skin-fat-muscle model

DiscussionExperiment result indicates that cavity shape evolution can be divided into 3 stages: parabola stage, arc stage, and bowl stage. The cavity shape evolution at different velocities follows a similar changing rule. Cavity depth firstly increases and then decreases with time. Cavity width gradually increases with time and the rate at which the cavity width grows decreases with time. The maximum cavity depth and cavity width at the same moment increase linearly with impacting velocity. When bullet impacts on the model, deformation occurs on the cowhide, paraffin gel and gelatin. Kinetic energy of bullet gradually transfers into kinetic energy of cowhide, strain energy of cowhide, absorbing energy of soft tissue (paraffin gel and gelatin). Energy transfer analysis result of 134 m/s demonstrates rubber bullet kinetic energy mainly transfers into cowhide strain energy and absorbing energy of paraffin gel and gelatin. Moreover, cowhide strain energy firstly increases and then decreases with time.
Source: Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine - Category: Forensic Medicine Source Type: research