Experimental study on the dynamic response of HSTM under combined shock waves and sub-millimeter particle swarms loading

Low collateral damage weapons achieve controlled personnel injury through the coupling of shock waves and particle swarms, where the particle swarms arise from the high-explosive dispersion of compacted metal particle ring. To investigate the dynamic response of the human target under combined shock waves and particle swarms loading, a physical human surrogate torso model (HSTM) was developed, and the dynamic response test experiment was conducted under the combined loading. The effects of particle size on the loading parameters, the damage patterns of the ballistic plate and HSTM, and the dynamic response parameters of the HSTM with and without protection are mainly analyzed. Our findings revealed that particle swarms can effectively delay the shock wave attenuation, especially the best effect when the particle size was 0.28–0.45 mm. The ballistic plate mainly exhibited dense perforation of the outer fabric and impacted crater damage of ceramic plates, whereas the unprotected HSTM was mainly dominated by high-density and small-size ballistic cavity group damage. The peak values of the dynamic response parameters for the HSTM under combined loading were significantly larger than those under bare charge loading, with multiple peaks observed. Under unprotected conditions, the peak acceleration of skeletons and peak pressure of organs increased with the particle size. Under protected conditions, the particle size, the number of particles hit, and the fit of the ballistic plate to the HSTM together affected the dynamic response parameters of the HSTM.