Finite Element Analysis of Human Body Thorax Subjected to the Ballistic Impact of Projectile

The current article investigates the effect or response of three-dimension model of human body thorax to the ballistic impact of projectile using LS-DYNA finite element software. The diameter of projectile was 11.2mm and velocity of 250m/s. This high speed projectile is stopped by a steel plate with 4.5 mm thickness. This impact is considered risky to human body. The model composed of elastic and isotropic materials and assembled from two layers structure representing bone and muscle. The explicit method of analysis was utilized to predict the effect of the human thorax. The mechanisms of energy transmitting to the human thorax were represented by acceleration and displacement in this model. The human thorax model was exposed to ballistic impact and the analysis was made for the response from 3 different types of projectiles (blunt, hemispherical and conical) to identify and determine the acceleration-time, displacement-time and acceleration-displacement curves and its responses. The study has been introduced a method to analysis the human body response of blunt trauma from projectile impact without using the dead body as the specimens.