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In examining deaths resulting from gunshot wounds, it is important to describe the wound pathway created by the projectile. Forensic pathologists must identify all entrance and exit wounds and account for all projectiles. Occasionally, confusion arises as to whether a skin defect represents an entrance wound or not, an exit wound, or some other type of wound. Herein, we propose the descriptor "bullet track skin defect" as a formal description for a superficial skin defect created along the pathway of a projectile within the body. Specifically, we define the "bullet track skin defect" as a partial‐ or full‐thickness skin defect produced by a projectile traveling beneath the skin in a relatively tangential fashion as part of a wound pathway within the body. It is somewhat analogous to a traditional graze or superficial tangential wound, wherein the projectile traveling outside the body strikes the skin tangentially from above, without entering the body. However, the projectile is already traveling within the body with the bullet track skin defect, disrupting the skin tangentially from below rather than from above, without exiting the body. Although these defects are not a common presentation of gunshot wounds, they are certainly not rare. With this case series, we suggest that such defects may be referred to as "bullet track skin defects." Alternative language that can substitute for "bullet track skin defects" includes "bullet track skin wounds" or "bullet track cutaneous defects." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers use a variety of target materials, and sometimes combinations of materials, in their archaeological experiments to examine thrust‐spear or projectile penetration, impact angle, durability, and other issues involving prehistoric hunting weaponry. This variety of target materials is beneficial to archaeological science in several ways, but it may also hinder the comparison of results because many of these target materials do not necessarily share similar physical properties. Here, we assess the penetration properties of four different target materials—store‐bought meat, clay, and two types of gelatin—via static penetration tests of a modern broadhead‐tipped arrow and a stone‐tipped projectile attached to an Instron Universal Materials Tester. Our analyses of load‐deflection curves, peak load, and work energy demonstrate how the four target materials are similar in some ways but different in others, which suggests that researchers may strategically employ one or several depending on the question asked or hypothesis tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The balancing force of the interior ballistics is an important issue in the design of the recoilless gun. It has been found in practice that the balancing force design method for recoilless guns based on the traditional classical interior ballistic theory cannot guide the balance from the physical mechanism and process. In order to study the unbalanced force experienced by the recoilless gun during the firing of the projectile and the variation law of its various parameters with time, the analysis and calculation method of the balanced interior ballistics is proposed in this article. This method separately models the aerodynamic and propellant combustion processes of the recoilless gun, using the characteristic line method to solve the model numerically. This method can be used to predict the change of the unbalanced force acting on the recoilless gun during the projectile firing of the recoilless gun. The reliability of the algorithm is verified by the interior ballistic performance when China 78 type 82 mm recoilless smoothbore gun launches the projectile. The study found that the unbalance impulse generated by the gas inside the barrel fired by the recoilless gun accounts for only 1.5 % of the total recoil impulse, but it has a great influence on the amount of impulse a shooter has can take. This approach provides a better understanding of this complex internal ballistic process, which has important implications for the design and improvements of recoilless guns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to know the process of hot spot creation to improve the safety of working with melted TNT. One of the probabilities is the air bubbles in TNT that melted during the firing and internal ballistics, which are the results of casting problems. Thus, in this paper, the accuracy of this probability was studied. Melted TNT is a highly viscous fluid, so in this study by improving the numerical code, the effects of the temperature‐dependent physical properties have been seen in the calculations. The results show that the viscosity work makes the bubble heated and rises, its temperature in comparison with the fluid environment. But the variations are a maximum of 4 °K. Therefore, it seems that the studied factors in this paper can′t be the reason for melted TNT undesirable ignition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A "plated bullet" has a thin layer of electroplated metal covering the lead core of the projectile. In certain situations, this thin layer of electroplated metal can fracture upon discharge of the firearm. When such fracturing occurs, vaporous lead can escape through the fracture lines of the spinning projectile, resulting in a spiral‐shaped deposition of dark residue surrounding a central bullet defect. The spiral‐shaped pattern is referred to as "comet‐tailing," or the "vortex effect." In this report, three homicide cases with associated comet‐tailing are presented. Police, death investigators, and forensic pathologists should be aware of this unique finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appearance of new projectile propulsion modes is viewed as an important element for understanding human behaviour during the Palaeolithic. Because the organic components of hunting weapons (the bow, spear‐thrower and arrow, and spear shaft) are only rarely preserved archaeologically, some effort has been invested in experiments to explore how the projecting modes could be identified through the analysis of stone points. The kinetic energy developed by each mode of propulsion has been considered a key variable in these experiments. However, the data used in these studies generally come from a few ballistic studies, with varied results. We present the results of a systematic study conducted with a ballistic pendulum and combined with a classic ballistic analysis. We quantified and compared the kinetic energy developed by the four standard modes of propulsion known for the Palaeolithic. The kinetic energy values that we attained, especially those measured for thrusting spears, clearly differ from what has been assumed up to now, and thus challenge current models on the evolution of hunting technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Damage produced by high-speed projectiles on organic tissue will depend on the physical properties of the tissues. Conditioning organic tissue samples to human core body temperature (37°C) prior to conducting ballistic experiments enables their behavior to closely mimic that of living tissues. To minimize autolytic changes after death, the tissues are refrigerated soon after their removal from the body and re-heated to 37°C prior to testing. This research investigates whether heating 50-mm-cube samples of porcine liver, kidney, and heart to 37°C for varying durations (maximum 7 h) can affect the penetration response of a high-speed, steel sphere projectile. Longer conditioning times for heart and liver resulted in a slight loss of velocity/energy of the projectile, but the reverse effect occurred for the kidney. Possible reasons for these trends include autolytic changes causing softening (heart and liver) and dehydration causing an increase in density (kidney). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a ceramic armour impacted by a long rod projectile, increasing the dwell-to-penetration transition velocity significantly improves its ballistic performance, whereas it can be achieved by prestressing of the ceramic or placing a buffer over the impact surface. In this paper, numerical simulation using the AUTODYN hydrocode is conducted to investigate how dwell-to-penetration transition is affected by the radial prestress and the presence of a buffer. Taking account of the pressure-dependent strength of SiC ceramics, it is found that distribution of hydrostatic pressure and equivalent stress in the ceramics controls damage initiation and dwell-to-penetration transition. Ceramic damage initiates from the edge of the projectile and then forms a damaged zone in front of the projectile. Compared to the radial prestress, the buffer more effectively suppresses damage initiation to fulfil interface dwell at a higher transition velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The burning of compacted modified propellant charges applied as a traveling charge in the hybrid shot scheme was studied. The block charges were manufactured by pressing fine propellant grains coated by a thin film of polyvinyl butyral. A stick from several pressed pellets was insulated over its lateral surface by a thin layer of silicon paste, glued to the back of the projectile and inserted into the barrel of the 23-mm smooth-bore laboratory gun. The loose-packed accelerator charge was placed in the breech. Combustion was initiated by an igniter plug placed between the traveling and breech charges. A set of piezoquartz gauges placed in the breech and along the barrel, as well as a frame-target device were used for recording characteristics of the firings. It is shown that blocks of this type, applied as the traveling charge, provide a stable burning process resulting in high ballistic performance. The block traveling charge preserves its integrity in the course of its motion along the barrel, and burning envelopes its total mass when pressure in the breach passes the maximum value. The descending portion of the pressure diagram demonstrates appreciable transformation, with convex or secondary hump sections. The shape of spatial pressure profiles behind the moving projectile is also transformed, and the pressure at the projectile butt end may be higher than the pressure in the breech. Compared to the conventional charges at the same maximum pressures the muzzle velocity increment attains 340 ms-1 (or 23%) for a light 35-g projectile and 200 ms-1 (or 19%) for a heavy 104-g projectile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the abilities of the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS) and BulletTRAX-3D electronic imaging systems to identify bullets fired by the same weapon in a large database of images. Ten consecutively rifled handgun barrels were test fired to obtain reference sample and known match sample pairs for upload onto both bullet acquisition systems. Both copper-jacketed and lead bullets were uploaded, to account for variations in the manner in which markings are reproduced on the different metal compositions. Ranked correlation lists were examined and evaluated. For copper-jacketed bullet correlations, both IBIS and BulletTRAX-3D identified all reference samples to their known matches within the top 10 positions. For lead bullets, BulletTRAX-3D identified all reference samples to their known match in the top 10 positions while IBIS identified only 30%. For inter composition comparisons, BulletTRAX-3D was more successful than IBIS, identifying 100% of reference samples to their known match in the top 20 for copper-jacketed to lead comparisons and 90% for lead to copper-jacketed comparisons. These results suggest that BulletTRAX-3D is more effective than IBIS in the analysis of a wider range of bullet types and it was also found to produce images of superior quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an experimental and finite-element investigation of ballistic limit of thin single and layered aluminium target plates. Blunt-, ogive- and hemispherical-nosed steel projectiles of 19 mm diameter were impacted on single and layered aluminium target plates of thicknesses 0.5, 0.71, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3 mm with the help of a pressure gun to obtain the ballistic limit in each case. The ballistic limit of target plate was found to be considerably affected by the projectile nose shape. Thin monolithic target plates as well as layered in-contact plates offered lowest ballistic resistance against the impact of ogive-nosed projectiles. Thicker monolithic plates on the other hand, offered lowest resistance against the impact of blunt-nosed projectiles. The ballistic resistance of the layered targets decreased with increase in the number of layers for constant overall target thickness. Axi-symmetric numerical simulations were performed with ABAQUS/Explicit to compare the numerical predictions with experiments. 3D numerical simulations were also performed for single plate of 1.0 mm thickness and two layered plate of 0.5 mm thickness impacted by blunt-, ogive- and hemispherical-nosed projectiles. Good agreement was found between the numerical simulations and experiments. 3D numerical simulations accurately predicted the failure mode of target plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projectiles of sintered tungsten alloy were fired directly at two kinds of steel target plates. The microstructures near the perforation of a medium, 0.45% carbon steel target plate can be identified along the radial direction as: melted and rapidly solidified layer, recrystallized fine-grained layer, deformed fine-grained layer, deformed layer and normal matrix. The adiabatic shear bands cannot be found in this intermediate strength steel. The microstructures along the radial direction of perforation of 30CrMnMo steel target plate are different from that of the medium carbon steel. There was a melted and rapidly solidified layer on the surface of the perforation, underneath there was a diffusing layer, and then fine-grained layer appeared as streamlines. Several kinds of adiabatic shear bands were found in this higher strength steel; they had different directions and widths, which were relative to the shock waves, as well as the complex deformation process of penetration. The deformation of the projectiles was rather different when they impacted on target plates of medium carbon steel and 30CrMnMo steel. The projectile that impacted on the medium carbon steel target plate was tamped and its energy dissipated slowly, while that which impacted on the 30CrMnMo steel target plate was sheared and the energy dissipated quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]