UVa student designs body armor he might wear

The most stalwart medieval knight probably griped about the crippling weight of his shining armor.
The metal’s inflexibility left plenty to complain about as well. And there was its nasty tendency of allowing sharp edges and pointy-tipped projectiles through cracks and creases.

Things haven’t changed much.
The nation’s combat forces continue to deal with these same shortcomings, despite tremendous advancements in modern body armor. U.S. Army Sgt. Jeff O’Dell saw vivid examples of body armor saving American lives during his deployment in Iraq.
The University of Virginia second-year student also knows how Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts can restrict movement and fail to stop multiple bullets. The four bulky ceramic plates now in use in protective vests used by American forces are also heavy, bringing the weight of a vest to nearly 30 pounds.

“I was deployed in Iraq as a fire support specialist from August 2005 to December 2006,” said O’Dell, who is serving in the National Guard while attending UVa. “Our armor vest had single ceramic plates in the front, back and on each side.
“The vest has saved the lives of some of my buddies, but having worn it a lot I know it can be improved upon. It’s too heavy, it doesn’t stop multiple rounds and it doesn’t flex.
“The Army has had a lot of issues with the body armor being recalled, and a lot of the troops have been complaining about its effectiveness, weight and so forth. I really think it’s something that needs to be fixed.”

Last September O’Dell seized upon an opportunity to possibly help save countless lives in the future — maybe even his own. As a double major in biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, he took a Design Discovery class that introduces second-year students to conceptual and practical design work.
The class educates students on how to come up with novel products and ultimately market them. The class is broken into small teams of students who work together on projects they originate.
O’Dell teamed up with Ann Bailey, Adam Rogers and Dan Abebayehu. When the student-soldier proposed the idea of creating a better armor vest the others quickly signed on.
“I had family members in the military so this hit close to home for me,” said Bailey, who is from Elkton. “And I like the idea of working with something that will actually be beneficial to someone.
“This project has been a real opportunity to work on something that will actually make a difference. I also like the fact that we’re at a school with so many resources and where the professors are so willing to help.
“When we were in the research phase we needed to figure out a particular thing, and I went to talk to a professor in the materials science department. He dropped whatever it was he was doing, pulled up a Web site and explained to me exactly what we needed to know.”

The armor vest project quickly became more than an exercise in how to get a passing grade. Inspired by O’Dell, who will likely be deployed to Afghanistan later this year, the team began working feverously on a new design that would eliminate the historic shortcomings of body armor.
A few months ago examples of the students’ new vest were put to the test at H.P. White Lab in Maryland. In the company’s ballistics testing facility, round after armor-piercing round were fired into the vests.
The team’s radically new design proved so successful and groundbreaking that a second round of testing will take place on Thursday. This time Army representatives will be present to evaluate the students’ system firsthand.
“The Army is interested because we’ve come up with a design that offers flexibility and more capability for stopping multiple armor-piercing rounds,” said O’Dell, who was born and raised in Martinsville. “A lot of it has to do with our design, and a lot of it is the material we’re changing.
“When the results came out so well during the first round of testing we made contact with a possible commercialization partner, which is an armor company in Pennsylvania. They got in touch with the Army and set up the testing for later this month.
“We actually came up with a concept for vehicle armor as well. During the first test it was hit by 10, 30-caliber armor-piercing rounds and stopped all 10.”

Creativity and cooperation

The new vest presents a classic example of what can result from a well thought-out course that emphasizes creativity and cooperation. O’Dell lauded the fact that the class was structured to give students step-by-step guidance during each stage of the project.
The students were made aware of available resources and professors who were experts in areas that could be helpful. One expert was Haydn N. Wadley, Edgar Starke Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. He gave the four students a crash course in body armor materials and how they work.
William F. Walker continues to guide and mentor the engineering students. He said his main goal in the class was to motivate students to go out and find their own problems to work on.
“I want the students to find something they’re passionate about, and will throw themselves into fully,” said Walker, associate professor of biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering at UVa. “Some students will accept the challenge like this team has done, and will go like mad.
“What Jeff and his team members have done is really not in my area of expertise, but the data they’ve gotten in testing so far really speaks for itself. Experts I’ve spoken to who do know this field haven’t seen anything like this before.
“This looks like a real major breakthrough. Jeff is a driven young man in a lot of ways. But his project has captured something in him, and he is throwing himself 100 percent into it.”
Rogers said the team started by researching why the current body armor system wasn’t up to scratch. After identifying the inherent weaknesses, they started working on ideas to rectify them.
“We’re still coming up with new ideas on how to improve the vest, so it’s an ongoing thing,” said Rogers, who hails from Kansas. “The class was just for a semester, but we’ve taken it further than that.

‘Keep going until we get there’

“Just about every day we’re doing some kind of work on it here in the lab, and we often take stuff home and work on it there. Seeing Jeff’s passion and how much this means to him, and how much this would help all our soldiers, has given us all the drive to keep going until we get there.
“Jeff is working on this all hours of the day and night. I can call him at 1 in the morning and he’ll be working on it.”
Because of the uniqueness of the design and materials, the team isn’t at liberty to disclose proprietary information. They did say that the upcoming test will incorporate their design with a new and better ceramic tile developed by the Pennsylvania company.
Team members also disclosed that their design will do more than stop multiple armor-piercing bullets. It will also help disperse the tremendous shock force resulting from the impact of a high-velocity round.
“If the impact of the round depresses the chest too much, that alone can kill a person,” Rogers said. “So our system has to keep that under control, as well.
“The standards for testing the plate deformation after a shot has been fired can’t be more than 44 millimeters. Our average was 12 to 15 millimeters, so it’s significantly less.
“Even after we shot each plate 10 times, it was still only about 15 millimeters. Our design pattern will actually be able to withstand multiple impacts, and protect the rest of the plates.”
When it was mentioned that the team members could stand to make a lot of money if the military adopts their design, they grimaced. Clearly, the project had never been about financial gain.
“As a noncommissioned officer I have two basic responsibilities — accomplish the mission and take care of my soldiers,” said O’Dell, who is currently working 12 to 16 hours a day to produce the 20 samples needed for the upcoming test.
“A better body armor system will allow me to do both those things. We won’t quit until we’ve fixed the problems, and I’m confident our design will do that.
“If we end up wearing this stuff overseas, and somebody who has been saved by it buys me a beer, that’ll be pretty sweet.”