Specifying and testing idealized bust surrogates for testing of female stab-resistant body armor

Abstract

Manufacturers of stab-resistant body armor continually strive to improve the comfort of the armor wearer and maximize protection. As female officers make up a larger portion of the law enforcement and corrections workplace, armor manufacturers have begun to offer designs that accommodate contoured body shapes, such as the female bust region, which results in non-planar armor. Conventional test methodologies for body armor were designed for armor to be tested flat and do not accommodate contoured armor. This work reviews the available literature concerning common bust sizes and discusses the research performed to specify bust surrogate size, shape, and materials for testing stab-resistant female body armor. Two standard cup sizes, B and D, modeled as a paraboloid with a modified base, are recommended to meet breast volume requirements. Recommendations for manufacture of these surrogates for incorporation into standardized test methods are provided. Instrumented stab testing of these surrogates shows that impact location on a structured armor and the type of backing material increase the maximum deceleration of a spike impact.

Keywords

stab-resistant body armor female body armor armor testing

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

NIJ 0115.00:2000. Stab resistance of personal body armor.

NIJ. Stab resistant armor compliant product list, http://www.justnet.org/ (accessed 13 May 2013).

OJP. Bulletproof vest partnership grant act applications, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bvpbasi/ (accessed 2 June 2013), http://ojp.gov/bvpbasi/award_reports/vestprofile.html for FY2007-FY2010 data.

Cheeseman KA. Women working in corrections: where we have been and where we are going. Corrections Today, http://www.readperiodicals.com/201212/2902507091.html (December/January 2012, accessed 13 May 2013).

Morton JB. ACA and women working in corrections. Corrections Today, 1 October 2005, pp.86–87.

DiMarino F. Women as corrections professionals, http://www.corrections.com/news/article/21703 (6 July 2009, accessed 2 June 2013).

Harrison C and Robinette K. CAESAR: summary statistics for the adult population (ages 18–65) of the United States of America. United States Air Force Research Laboratory, Report no. AFRL-HE-WP-TR-2002-0170, 2002.

ASTM D5585. Standard table of body measurements for adult female misses figure type, sizes 2–20, 2011.

ASTM D5586. Standard table of body measurements for women aged 55 or older (all figure types), 2010.

10.

SizeUSA. Scanning survey, http://www.tc2.com/products/body-scanner/size-usa-scanning-survey/ (accessed 16 January 2015).

11.

NTC. http://www.ntcresearch.org/pdf-rpts/AnRp05/S04-CR01-A5.pdf (accessed 16 January 2015).

12.

ISO 7250-1:2002. Basic human body measurements for technological design. Part 1. Body measurement definitions and landmarks.

13.

ISO 7250-2:2002. Basic human body measurements for technological design. Part 2. Statistical summaries of body measurements from individual ISO populations.

14.

Hoke

. Architectural graphic standards, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2000.

15.

Shelasky R and Wilson J. How to measure your bra size. Real Simple, http://www.realsimple.com/beauty-fashion/clothing/shopping-guide/how-to-measure-bra-size-00100000077331/index.html (accessed 13 May 2013).

16.

Hadley M. HerRoom’s universal sizing chart demystifies larger bras. USA Today, 9 April 2012.

17.

Bra size. Learn about sister sizing, http://www.brasize.com/bra-sister-size.html (accessed 9 July 2013).

18.

Stab Resistant Armor STC. Small sampling of bust sizes for 103 female correctional officers. Unpublished communication.

19.

Catanuto

Spano

Pennati

. Experimental methodology for digital breast shape analysis and objective surgical outcome evaluation. J Plast Reconstr Aesthetic Surg 2008; 61: 314–318.

20.

Farinella G, Impoco G, Gallo G, et al. Unambiguous analysis of woman breast shape for plastic surgery outcome evaluation. In: eurographics Italian chapter conference, University of Catania, Italy, 22–24 February 2006.

21.

Georgii

Eder

Burger

. A computational tool for preoperative breast augmentation planning in aesthetic plastic surgery. IEEE J Biomed Health Informat 2014; 18: 907–919.

22.

Lee

Chen

Reece

. a novel quantitative measure of breast curvature based on catenary. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2012; 59: 1115–1124.

23.

Lee J, Muralidhar GS, Reece GP, et al. A shape constrained parametric active contour model for breast contour detection. In: 2012 annual international conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), IEEE, 2012, pp.4450–4453.

24.

Merriam Webster Dictionary, online edition. Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/.

25.

McCunn D. Underwire charts. Design enterprises of San Francisco, http://deofsf.com/PDF.html (accessed 13 May 2013).

26.

Ringberg

Bageman

Rose

. Of cup and bra size: reply to a prospective study of breast size and premenopausal breast cancer incidence. Int J Canc 2006; 119: 2242–2243.

27.

Katch

Campaigne

Freedson

. Contribution of breast volume and weight to body fat distribution in females. Am J Phys Anthropol 1980; 53: 93–100.

28.

Forster AM, Mauchant D, Forster AL, et al. Getting to the point with foam tissue surrogates in stab testing. In: proceedings of the personal armour systems symposium, Nuremberg, Germany, 17–21 September 2012.

29.

Nicol

Chadwick

EKJ

Gray

TGF

. Investigation of knife stab characteristics, Glasgow: The University of Strathclyde, 1998.

30.

Pettit MJ and Croft J. PSDB Stab resistance standard for body armour (1999). Police Scientific Development Branch, Publication No. 6/99, 1999.