Fit and accommodation are critical design goals for a body armor system to maximize Soldiers' protection, comfort, mobility, and performance. The aim of this study is to assess fit and accommodation of body armor plates for the US Army. A virtual fit assessment technique, developed, validated, and deployed by NASA for spacesuit design, was adopted for this work. Specifically, 3D manikins of the Soldier population were overlaid virtually with geometrically similar surrogates of the armor plates. Trained subject matter experts with the US Army and NASA manually assessed the fit of the armor plates to manikins using a computer visualization tool and selected the appropriate plate size and position. A prediction model was built from the assessment data to predict the plate size from an arbitrary body shape and the resultant patterns of body-to-plate contact were quantified. The outcome indicated a unique trend of the plate sizes covarying with anthropometry. More pronouncedly, when the overlap between the body tissue and armor plate was quantified, female Soldiers are likely to experience a 25 times larger body-to-plate contact volume and 6.5 times larger contact depth than males on average, due to sex-based anthropometric differences. Overall, the prediction model and contact patterns provided key metrics for virtual body armor fit assessments, of which the locations, patterns, and magnitudes can help to improve sizing and fit of body armor systems, as previously demonstrated for NASA spacesuit design.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2024.104339 | DOI Listing |
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2025
Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia.
Textile-based lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are in great demand to power wearable electronics. They currently face a key safety challenge, particularly concerning mechanical abuse that could trigger thermal runaway, causing harm to individuals. Here, we report on Kevlar-fabric-based LIBs that can afford high impact tolerance while offering excellent electrochemical performance comparable to metal-foil-based cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomaterials
December 2024
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China; NMPA Research Base of Regulatory Science for Medical Devices, Institute of Regulatory Science for Medical Devices, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China. Electronic address:
The development of small-diameter vascular grafts (SDVGs) still faces significant challenges, particularly in overcoming blockages within vessels. A key issue is the foreign-body response (FBR) triggered by the implants, which impairs the integration between grafts and native vessels. In this study, we applied an interfacial infiltration strategy to create a stable, hydrophilic, and passivated hydrogel coating on SDVGs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Morphol
January 2025
Department of Biostructure and Animal Physiology, Division of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wrocław, Poland.
The skin of the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) is covered by a form of armour formed mainly of scales, which often co-occur with osteoderms. Scales are keratinized, non-mineralized structures in the uppermost layer of the epidermis that are in contact with each other to form a system in which individual scales are isolated from each other by a softer skin fold zone. In the Varanus, the surface of the scales is flat and smooth (thoracic limb, abdomen, and tail areas), domed and smooth (head area) or domed with conical ornamentation (dorsal surface, pelvic limb-dorsal surface areas).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Eng Sci Med Diagn Ther
August 2025
U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, Fort Novosel, AL 36362.
To determine behind armor blunt trauma (BABT) injury criteria, experiments have been conducted by launching blunt projectiles at live swine at velocities up to 65 meters per second (m/s) using one type of indenter design. To ensure the generalizability of the developed injury criteria, additional tests with different indenter designs are needed. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the kinematics and injury parameters from two indenter designs using human body finite element modeling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZootaxa
June 2024
Universidade Estadual de Maringá. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Comparada; Av. Colombo; 5790; 87020-900; Maringá; Paraná State; Brazil.
Despite being one of the better-surveyed regions in Brazil, the upper Rio Paraná basin still reveals relatively numerous large new species of fish. Here, we present a new uniquely colored species of the highly diverse, armored catfish genus Hypostomus. The new species was mostly found in the Rio Grande basin, plus a single record in the main channel of the Rio Paraná.
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