Experimental and numerical analyses of ballistic resistance evaluation of combat helmet using Hybrid III headform

Combat helmets are the primary system for protecting the head against ballistic impacts. Generally, combat helmets have been evaluated using a ballistic plasticine head surrogate based on international standards. More realistic human head models have recently been introduced to assess combat helmet performance considering biomechanical requirements. In this work, the Hybrid III dummy head and neck has been introduced to evaluate the performance of the combat helmet against the ballistic impact of live ammunition at different impact locations, considering two different thicknesses of the padding system. A numerical model including a helmet and a Hybrid III head and neck, is developed and validated with our experimental data. The results reveal the influence of the location, where the rear impact leads to the highest risk of brain damage. The effect of pad thickness is closely related to the energy absorbed by the helmet, the backface deformation (BFD), the contact force and the acceleration measured on the head.The authors acknowledge the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and FEDER program under Project RTC-2015-3887-8 and Project DPI2017-88166-R for the financial support of the work. M Rodriguez-Millan acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Universities, National Program for the Promotion of Talent and its Employability in R&D&I, National Mobility Subprogram of the National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2021-2023, for the professor's mobility program (PRX21/00329)