Apparent measurement errors in "Development of biomechanical response corridors of the thorax to blunt ballistic impacts"

TL;DR

This paper identifies apparent measurement errors in a biomechanical study of thorax responses to ballistic impacts, highlighting discrepancies that violate fundamental physical laws and questioning the validity of the original data.

Contribution

It critically analyzes existing biomechanical response corridors, revealing inconsistencies and potential errors in measurement data that impact the study's validity.

Findings

Significant differences between force-time and force-deflection curves and physical energy changes.

Violations of Newton's second law and work-energy theorem in the data.

Potential measurement errors in the original biomechanical response data.

Abstract

"Development of biomechanical response corridors of the thorax to blunt ballistic impacts" (Bir, C., Viano, D., King, A., 2004, Journal of Biomechanics 37, 73-79.) contains apparent measurement errors. Areas under several force vs. time (Fig. 2) and force vs. deflection curves (Fig.4) differ significantly from the momentum and kinetic energy changes, respectively. These differences violate Newton's second law and the work-energy theorem.