Grenades and standard issue helmet

helimachoptor

Probably a bit of a walter question but, if you stick your standard issue helmet over a standard grenade apply some pressure on it, will the shrapnel penetrate the helmet?

Irish_Army01

helimachoptor wrote: »

Probably a bit of a walter question but, if you stick your standard issue helmet over a standard grenade apply some pressure on it, will the shrapnel penetrate the helmet?

Ask mythbusters..

concussion

That's the wrong way to go about it. You have to start something like "my cousin was in Afghanistan and stopped for a rest. He put his helment down on the ground and sat down on it. Unknown to him, he put it over a standard issue grenade attached to a tripwire and it detonated. The helmet contained all the shrapnel and he only suffered a bruised arse"

BigDuffman

Wondered that myself before (after an incident with a truck load of thun flash landing in my trench)!

Donny5

helimachoptor wrote: »

Probably a bit of a walter question but, if you stick your standard issue helmet over a standard grenade apply some pressure on it, will the shrapnel penetrate the helmet?

It seems very unlikely. Jason Dunham was a marine who died in Iraq in 2004 trying to do just that. His helmet did not contain either the blast wave or the shrapnel. That was probably a PASGT helmet, now replaced by the Lightweight Comabat Helmet, which, although stronger, isn't an order of magnitude better.

concussion

BigDuffman wrote: »

Wondered that myself before (after an incident with a truck load of thun flash landing in my trench)!

You sir, need to dig a grenade sump!


Thanks for the link Donny.

helimachoptor

Donny5 wrote: »

It seems very unlikely. Jason Dunham was a marine who died in Iraq in 2004 trying to do just that. His helmet did not contain either the blast wave or the shrapnel. That was probably a PASGT helmet, now replaced by the Lightweight Comabat Helmet, which, although stronger, isn't an order of magnitude better.

Cheers Donny

goldie fish

Perhaps, and I'm no eggspurt, the helmet is designed so that the outer shell protects the inner core, rather than the other way around? And of course theres the physics of the eggshell comparison?

Donny5

goldie fish wrote: »

Perhaps, and I'm no eggspurt, the helmet is designed so that the outer shell protects the inner core, rather than the other way around? And of course theres the physics of the eggshell comparison?

For sure, the outside of the dome would be harder to penetrate than the inside, because of the distribution of force. More likely, though, is the pressure wave, which would reach the helmet before the fragments, is too great for the helmet's fibers to bear. The kevlar weave is designed specifically to resist penetration by small, fast objects. The weave compresses when impacted and this is the source of much of it's strength. The air pressure inside the helmet immediately after detonation would be immense, and the force would pull the weave apart. This would be almost the best case if you were trying to devise a scenario to defeat a kevlar helmet.

On an aside, a Royal Marine named Matthew Croucher threw himself onto a grenade in Afghanistan and survived, because he dropped onto it on his back. His rucksack sufficiently dampened the pressure wave to allow him to survive. The rucksack, however, did very little to slow the fragments, which his body armour stopped. Brave man.

Craigsy

Try it yourself and tell us how it works out