# Presentation: 141700

## Body ArmorStandards and Testing Technical Workshop

*** ******OLES     ***

***Body Armor******Standards and Testing Technical Workshop***

## Workshop Breakout Sessions

**General Testing Issues**
**Ensuring Service Life Performance**
**Tom Frazier**
**Facilitator**
**President, The Frazier Group**
**Kirk Rice**
**Technical Lead**
**Program Manager, Office of Law Enforcement Standards**
**National Institute of Standards and Technology**
**Conformity Assessment Program**

## What About Used Armor Performance?

**Mechanical Damage:**
**Routine “wear and tear,” flexing, abrasion, etc.**
**Other Environmental Damage:**
**Hydrolytic, photolytic attack**
**Chemical processes may be accelerated by temperature**
**Key Challenge:**
**How to assess ballistic performance**

**Notes:**
More subtle issues

Integrity of stitching
Longevity of outer cover material
Breakage of individual fibers over time
Possible delamination of shield material

Morgan data el al, 12-05-1983 UCTL-89625, Hydrolysis of Kevlar 49 fiber
Source:  Toyobo/BSST, 2001, Tensile strength loss of PBO fiber due to Hydrolysis
BSST Sicherheitstechnik GmbH /DSM, 2001, Tensile strength loss of PBO fiber and Shield material due to hydrolysis and/or breakdown of structure (for Shield material)

## Vest penetrations could occur because of:
Threat mismatches
Variations within common threat class (harder alloys, thicker jackets, steel jackets, etc.)
Shot locations...near edges, close together, etc.
Changes in armor performance (loss due to environmental factors, including normal “wear and tear”)
Variations in armor performance due to lot-to-lot production variations

**Threat mismatches**
**Variations within common threat class (harder alloys, thicker jackets, steel jackets, etc.)**
**Shot locations...near edges, close together, etc.**
**Changes in armor performance (loss due to environmental factors, including normal “wear and tear”)**
**Variations in armor performance due to lot-to-lot production variations**

**Vest Penetration Causes**

## Ensuring Service Life Performance

**Ensuring Service Life Performance**

**Expectations of used armor**
**Test Conditions, Test Methods, and Data Analysis**
**Simulating the “Aged” Condition on New Armor**
**Non-Destructive Test Methods**
**Sensors/Tests to Determine Damage or Abuse**

***Specific Recommendations ******~ I******deas ~ Help**** *

## Ensuring Service Life Performance

**Interim requirements**
**Various potential approaches depending on tests conducted, designs, history, and engineering analysis**
**Forward-looking requirements**
**Defining “standardized” environmental exposure protocols **
**Establishing post-exposure performance-based tests**

***Expectations of used armor***

## Ensuring Service Life Performance

**Experiences with used armor assessments**
**Penetration Tests**
**Backface Signature Tests**
**V50 Tests**
**Other Tests**
**Test conditions to challenge potential vulnerabilities**
**Data analysis methods**

***Test Conditions, Test Methods, and Data Analysis I***

## Ensuring Service Life Performance

**A common framework for discussing armor ballistic performance is needed**
**Approach should be based on objective methods and have a statistical basis**
**“...****to limit the risk of accepting bad armor as well as the risk of rejecting good armor.”**

***OTA Report, Vol. II, p. 107***

***Test Conditions, Test Methods, and Data Analysis II***

## Ensuring Service Life Performance

**Experiences with artificial aging methods**
**Changes in armor**
**Mechanical damage**
**Structural integrity**
**Chemical changes**
**Identify promising artificial-aging approaches**
**Discuss how to best utilize “used armor” test results**

***Simulating the “Aged” Condition on New Armor***

**Mechanical properties**
**Ballistic performance**

## Ensuring Service Life Performance

**Experiences with promising technologies**
**Applications of technologies to identifying changes in armor**
**Discussion of strengths and weaknesses of technologies**

***Non-Destructive Test Methods***
***Sensors/Tests to Determine Damage or Abuse***

## Slide 11