VCOM Research Day Program Book 2023

Undergraduate Student Research Biomedical

05 Evalution of the Biomechanical Performance and Risk of Ocular Trauma of Gel Projectile Toys

Brock Duma Corresponding author: brockduma@vt.edu

Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science Blacksburg

There is an increasingly high number of eye injuries due to the growing popularity of projectile toys across the United States. The objective of this study was to evaluate the biomechanical performance and risk of eye trauma of newly developed gel projectile toys. Two different types of gel sphere ammunitions and three different projectile mechanisms were evaluated in this study through rigorous impact testing. Over 200 gel samples were used throughout all impact evaluations. Each type of gel sphere was shot from

0.25 m and impacted fuji film to determine the contact area and impact intensity. Every impact test was recorded at 10,000 fps with the three different relative impact velocities being determined. The average impacting velocity of SplatR Ball (S1) was 58.93 m/s, the average impacting velocity of Gel Blaster Surge (G1) was 40.84 m/s, and the average impact velocity of YaGee TSOL (Y1) was 38.30 m/s. The average contact area for Type 1 ammunition was 7.53 mm and the average contact area for Type 2 ammunition was

7.83 mm. The impact intensities determined from the fuji film results were highly indictive of injury due to evident dark red color. The data collected from this study shows that gel based ammunition when shot at speeds greater than or equal to 38 m/s produce impact energies great enough to cause mild to severe ocular injury.

Figure 1: Sample of Type 2 Gel Ammunition

109 2 0 2 3 R e s e a r c h R e c o g n i t i o n D a y