Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies Report: Ballistic Gelatin

Abstract

Ballistic gelatin is designed to simulate living soft tissue. It is the standard for evaluating the effectiveness of firearms against humans because of its convenience and acceptability over animal or cadaver testing. The two issues that remain to be resolved are standards for the preparation of ballistic gelatin and the direct relation of gelatin test results to effectiveness of firearms against humans. These issues are related in the sense that gelatin can (in principle) be formulated to simulate various types of soft tissue. Although gelatin can simulate the density and viscosity of living human tissue, it lacks the structure of tissue. Gelatin doesn't bleed or have nerves or vessels. In addition, the human anatomy contains organs, muscle, and fat and is supported by a skeleton.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA446543

Entities

People

  • J. R. Welsch
  • N. C. Nicholas

Organizations

  • Pennsylvania State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ammunition
  • Ballistics
  • Computer Programs
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Models
  • Munitions
  • Patient Care
  • Projectiles
  • Soft Tissues
  • Standards
  • Terminal Ballistics
  • Test Methods
  • Trajectories
  • Wound Ballistics
  • Wounds And Injuries
  • X Rays

Readers

  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Trauma Surgery or Emergency Medicine.