AN INEXPENSIVE PEAK ACCELERATION INDICATOR FOR AIR CRASH MONITORING.

THE DOD HAS EXPRESSED INTEREST IN A LOW-COST, PASSIVE, SIMPLE, AND SMALL DEVICE OR TECHNIQUE THAT WOULD ALLOW QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF PEAK ACCELERATION ACHIEVED DURINGAN AIR CRASH. THESE DEVICES WOULD BE PLACED IN ALL SERVICE AIRCRAFT AND, IN THE EVENT OF A CRASH, COULD BE USED TO COR-RELATE INJURY WITH PEAK ACCELERATION. IT IS PROPOSED HEREIN TO DEVELOP A DEVICE BAED ON SMALL PELLETS OF DIFFERENT DIAMETERS EMBEDDED IN A TRANSPARENT MEDIUM. WHEN EXPOSED TO SHOCK, THE LARGER PELLETS WOULD DISPLACE. BY NOTING WHICH PELLETS MOVE AND WHICH DO NOT, THE PEAK ACCELERATION CAN BE ASCERTAINED. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS WOULD INVOLVE CHOICE OFOPTIMAL MEDIA, PELLET CODING/READING TECHNIQUES, DEVICE ISOLATION TO ACHIEVE DESIRED FREQUENCY SENSITIVITY, AND CALIBRATED TESTS.