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A finite element (FE) model with knee-thigh-hip (KTH) and lower-extremity muscles has been developed to study the potential effects of muscle tension on KTH injuries due to knee bolster loadings in frontal crashes. This model was created by remeshing the MADYMO human lower-extremity FE model to account for regional differences in cortical bone thickness, trabecular bone, cortical bone with directionally dependent mechanical properties and Tsai-Wu failure criteria, and articular cartilage. The model includes 35 Hill-type muscles in each lower extremity with masses based on muscle volume. The skeletal response of the model was validated by simulating biomechanical tests without muscle tension, including cadaver skeletal segment impact tests documented in the literature as well as recent tests of seated whole cadavers that were impacted using knee-loading conditions similar to those produced in FMVSS 208 testing.

A Magic Cube (MQ) approach for crashworthiness design has been proposed in previous research [1]. The purpose of this paper is to extend the MQ approach to the blast protection design of a military vehicle system. By applying the Space Decompositions and Target Cascading processes of the MQ approach, three subsystem design problems are identified to systematize the blast protection design problem of a military vehicle. These three subsystems, including seat structure, restraint system, and under-body armor structure, are most influential to the overall blast-protective design target. The effects of a driver seat subsystem design and restraint-system subsystem design on system blast protection are investigated, along with a focused study on the under-body blast-protective structure design problem.

Vehicle structure crashworthiness design is one of the most challenging problems in product development and it has been studied for decades. Challenges still remain, which include developing a reliable and systematic approach for general crashworthiness design problems, which can be used to design an optimum vehicle structure in terms of topology, shape, and size, and for both structural layout and material layout. In this paper, an advanced and systematic approach is presented, which is called Magic Cube (MQ) approach for crashworthiness design. The proposed MQ approach consists of three major dimensions: Decomposition, Design Methodology, and General Considerations. The Decomposition dimension is related to the major approaches developed for the crashworthiness design problem, which has three layers: Time (Process) Decomposition, Space Decomposition, and Scale Decomposition.