Blunt Impact Performance Characteristics of the Advanced Combat Helmet and the Paratrooper and Infantry Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops Helmet

Abstract : Protective helmets are typically required to absorb energy in order to reduce head injury risk during blunt impact events. The energy-absorbing mechanism must be robust enough to reduce the impact energy to a low-injury probability level throughout a realistic range of impact velocities and environmental temperatures, regardless of the helmet impact site. The Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) is configured with fitting pads that possess the capability to attenuate limited blunt head impact forces. Prior combat helmets were not required by their governing specifications to provide any tested levels of blunt impact protection. to obtain further information, a series of blunt impact tests were conducted with the ACH and the paratrooper and infantry versions of the PASGT helmet. The helmets were tested at two impact velocities, three environmental temperatures, and seven impact sites with two successive impacts. The performance of each was characterized by the transmitted acceleration measured within a standard head form and compared against the recommended threshold for mean and maximum acceleration.