The improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are the most common weapon in the recent terror incidents. Energised fragments from IEDs frequently inflict severe penetrating injuries to the torso organs. The research in this thesis primarily investigated the pattern and mechanism of penetrating injuries to the torso organs and quantified the high risk of the penetrating injuries.
To clarify the pattern of the penetrating injuries, epidemiological studies in terror incidents were reviewed. This analysis suggested that the heart and liver have a very high risk of sustaining severe penetrating injuries. This research, therefore, aimed to quantify the penetrating cardiac and hepatic injuries.
Penetrating cardiac and hepatic injuries were quantified using three representative fragments of IEDs. Cadaveric lamb hearts and bovine livers were chosen as the animal specimens due to their similar material properties to the human. Tests were conducted on fresh and fresh-frozen samples using a gas-gun system in the laboratory. Perforation of the cardiac wall was primarily assessed to develop the injury-risk curves of critical injuries as a function of the striking velocity. For a penetrating hepatic injury, tissue disruption caused by a temporary wound cavity was quantified using MRI scanning so that the injury-risk curves of the liver were developed.
Finally, human tissue surrogates are beneficial for testing in any laboratory setting and so biofidelic tissue surrogates for penetrating cardiac and hepatic injury were determined in this thesis from the different concentrations of ballistic gelatine.
The outcomes in this study can be incorporated into computational models of mass casualty events which inform infrastructure design, mitigation strategies, and emergency response to reduce the risk of severe penetrating injuries.