Investigation of dental alginate and agar impression materials as a brain simulant for ballistic testing

• Warm and cold brain specimens showed different mechanical deformation properties.
• Cold brain absorbed less kinetic energy than warm brain from the projectile.
• Temperature effect of the simulant testing scenario is an important consideration.
• Agar showed the closest similarity in mechanical behavior to deer brain.
• Alginate left a larger permanent cavity than agar and deer brain.

Routine forensic research into in vitro skin/skull/brain ballistic blood backspatter behavior has traditionally used gelatin at a 1:10 Water:Powder (W:P) ratio by volume as a brain simulant. A limitation of gelatin is its high elasticity compared to brain tissue. Therefore this study investigated the use of dental alginate and agar impression materials as a brain simulant for ballistic testing. Fresh deer brain, alginate (W:P ratio 91.5:8.5) and agar (W:P ratio 81:19) specimens (n = 10) (11 × 22 × 33 mm) were placed in transparent Perspex boxes of the same internal dimensions prior to shooting with a 0.22 inch caliber high velocity air gun. Quantitative analysis to establish kinetic energy loss, vertical displacement elastic behavior and qualitative analysis to establish elasticity behavior was done via high-speed camera footage (SA5, Photron, Japan) using Photron Fastcam Viewer software (Version 3.5.1, Photron, Japan) and visual observation. Damage mechanisms and behavior were qualitatively established by observation of the materials during and after shooting. The qualitative analysis found that of the two simulant materials tested, agar behaved more like brain in terms of damage and showed similar mechanical response to brain during the passage of the projectile, in terms of energy absorption and vertical velocity displacement. In conclusion agar showed a mechanical and subsequent damage response that was similar to brain compared to alginate.