Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Babski - Reeves, Kari

Committee Member

Carruth, Daniel

Committee Member

Strawderman, Lesley

Date of Degree

12-10-2010

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Industrial Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

James Worth Bagley College of Engineering

Department

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate the impact of current body armor design on physical performance during simulated law enforcement activities. Twenty participants completed three trials of 13 individual activities representative of routine law enforcement activities. Three body armor configurations were evaluated: baseline (i.e., no armor), concealable body armor, and external body armor. Dependent variables included task completion time, heart rate, and center of pressure (COP). Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to test the dependant variables, with Tukey’s HSD post hoc tests used where appropriate. Results showed that the vertical and horizontal components of COP were affected by armor condition, time was not affected by armor condition, and heart rate was found to have significance in the EBA condition. The findings show that there is evidence to suggest that armor can affect the physical performance of wearers as they go about completing physical activities.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15583

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