Read James, Quinlan Philip, Bloodworth-Race Susie, Hazael Rachael, Critchley Richard
Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, SN6 8LA, UK.
Forensic Sci Med Pathol. 2024 Dec;20(4):1331-1342. doi: 10.1007/s12024-024-00797-5. Epub 2024 Mar 12.
Strawboard has been utilised as a fragmentation capture material since the 1960s, mainly employed to capture fragments from explosives and explosive devices from arena trials of munitions. As this material has historically been calibrated to a known standard, it has a proven record of allowing research establishments to ascertain the velocity of a fragment based on the depth of penetration of the strawboard. During the time of calibration, strawboard was used as a common building material which was both widely available and relatively affordable; however, due to the recent economic crisis and geopolitical supply issues, this is no longer the case. Building on initial testing, this paper investigates alternatives to strawboard to determine if a cheaper, more readily available material can be used instead. The alternatives are compared and judged based on the NATO ARSP-03 guideline for capture material which includes metrics such as price and attainability, as well as assessing environmental impact and its ability to be used as a viable alternative to strawboard in an explosive environment. Based on these NATO guidelines, explosive fragmentation and ballistic experiments were conducted, and ten materials were tested based on the following criteria: Handling, Density, Flammability, Calibration, Cost and Availability. Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) was found to be a suitable alternative to strawboard. The data demonstrates that it provides the same capture performance as strawboard at approximately a quarter of the cost and is far more readily available. Other materials also showed potential and further testing should be undertaken to validate these materials as alternatives to MDF.
自20世纪60年代以来，草纸板一直被用作碎片捕获材料，主要用于在弹药靶场试验中捕获炸药和爆炸装置产生的碎片。由于这种材料在历史上已根据已知标准进行校准，它有一个经过验证的记录，即允许研究机构根据草纸板的穿透深度来确定碎片的速度。在校准期间，草纸板被用作一种常见的建筑材料，它既广泛可得又相对便宜；然而，由于最近的经济危机和地缘政治供应问题，情况已不再如此。基于初步测试，本文研究了草纸板的替代材料，以确定是否可以使用更便宜、更容易获得的材料。根据北约ARSP - 03捕获材料指南对这些替代材料进行比较和评判，该指南包括价格和可获得性等指标，以及评估环境影响及其在爆炸环境中作为草纸板可行替代品的能力。基于这些北约指南，进行了爆炸碎片和弹道实验，并根据以下标准对十种材料进行了测试：可操作性、密度、易燃性、校准、成本和可用性。发现中密度纤维板（MDF）是草纸板的合适替代品。数据表明，它以大约四分之一的成本提供与草纸板相同的捕获性能，并且更容易获得。其他材料也显示出潜力，应进行进一步测试以验证这些材料作为MDF替代品的可行性。
