Impact Protection Properties of Candidate Foam Inserts for the Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT) Helmet System.

Abstract : Operational paratrooper head injuries increased 2-fold relative to other body region injuries from 1985 to 1990. This trend concerned the leaders of the U.S. Army paratrooper community, primarily XVIII Airborne Corps and U.S. Army Infantry School, who directed development of head protective measures without modification of the ballistic helmet shell. They established a goal of 50 percent reduction of transmittance of impact forces to the paratrooper head. The outcome was to conserve the fighting strength through reduction of head injuries during airborne operations. We tested a prototype foam insert for the Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT) helmet system. The helmet with and without inserts was tested using standard head impact tests. The prototype foam inserts used in testing did not meet the desired 50 percent reduction in headform acceleration. The foam inserts did improve the helmet's impact absorption capabilities by an average of 23.8 percent for initial impacts and 13.3 percent for subsequent impacts. The degree to which this reduced force transmission would reduce head injury could not be predicted.