Non-lethal Projectile Characterisation Method: Application to 40-mm SIR-X and Condor NT901 Projectiles

The growing market of kinetic energy non-lethal weapons (KENLW) using deformable projectiles has increased the need of numerically assessing the impacts of KENLW projectiles on the human body in terms of injury risk and consequently the determination of the effective distance of use of these weapons. In the context of simulations of non-lethal impacts on the human body using finite element method, a method of characterisation and validation of deformable non-lethal projectiles is investigated due to the practical difficulty of characterising the projectile deformable part with conventional tests. This method combines in one step the characterisation of the projectile deformable part and the validation of the projectile. It is based on the results of real projectile shots on the rigid wall equipped with a force sensor. To apply the method, two projectiles are used: the 40-mm B&T SIR-X sponge grenade and the CONDOR NT901 projectile. Good correspondence is obtained between the numerical results and the experimental results.