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Abstract The objective of this article is to evaluate the effects of different blast protective modules to military vehicle structures and occupants. The dynamic responses of the V-shape integral basic armor, the add-on honeycomb sandwich structure module, and the anti-shock seat-dummy system were simulated and analyzed. The improvements of occupant survivability by different protective modules were compared using occupant injury criteria. The integral armored cab can maintain the integrity of the cab body structure. The add-on honeycomb sandwich armor reduces the peak structural deformation and velocity of the cab floor by 34.9% and 47.4%, respectively, compared with the cab with integral armors only. The integral armored cab with the anti-shock seat or the honeycomb sandwich structures reduces the occupant shock responses below the injury criteria. For different blast threat intensities, the selection of appropriate protective modules can meet protection requirements.

The EuroSID-2re (ES-2re) Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) commonly known as the crash test dummy is also used in the military domain to assess the risk of injury of armored vehicles occupants from lateral impact. The loading conditions range from low velocity - long duration impacts (4 m/s - 50 ms) similar to the automotive domain, to high velocity - short duration impacts (28 m/s - 3 ms) corresponding to cases where the panel deforms under an explosion. The human shoulder response to lateral impact was investigated at bounds of the loading condition spectrum previously mentioned, and also at intermediate conditions (14 m/s - 9 ms) in previous studies. The aim of the current study is to provide additional insight at the intermediate loading conditions which are not found in the literature.

Under body blast (UBB) loading to military transport vehicles is known to cause foot-ankle fractures to occupants due to energy transfer from the vehicle floor to the feet of the soldier. The soldier posture, the proximity of the event with respect to the soldier, the personal protective equipment (PPE) and age/sex of the soldier are some variables that can influence injury severity and injury patterns. Recently conducted experiments to simulate the loading environment to the human foot/ankle in UBB events (~5ms rise time) with variables such as posture, age and PPE were used for the current study. The objective of this study was to determine statistically if these variables affected the primary injury predictors, and develop injury risk curves. Fifty below-knee post mortem human surrogate (PMHS) legs were used for statistical analysis. Injuries to specimens involved isolated and multiple fractures of varying severity.

Improving injury prediction accuracy and fidelity for mounted Warfighters has become an area of focus for the U.S. military in response to improvised explosive device (IED) use in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the Hybrid III anthropomorphic test device (ATD) has historically been used for crew injury analysis, it is only capable of predicting a few select skeletal injuries. The Computational Anthropomorphic Virtual Experiment Man (CAVEMAN) human body model is being developed to expand the injury analysis capability to both skeletal and soft tissues. The CAVEMAN model is built upon the Zygote 50th percentile male human CAD model and uses a finite element modeling approach developed for high performance computing (HPC). The lower extremity subset of the CAVEMAN human body model presented herein includes: 28 bones, 26 muscles, 40 ligaments, fascia, cartilage and skin.

Abstract - The Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin (WIAMan) was developed to assess injury in Live Fire Test and Evaluation (LFTE) and laboratory development tests of vehicles and vehicle technologies subjected to underbody blast (UBB) loading. While UBB events impart primarily vertical loading, the occupant location in the vehicle relative to the blast can result in some inherent non-vertical, or off-axis loading. In this study, the WIAMan Technology Demonstrator (TD) was subjected to 18 tests with a 350g, 5-ms time duration drop tower pulse using an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) energy attenuating seat in four conditions: purely vertical, 15° forward tilt, 15° rearward tilt, and 15° lateral tilt to simulate the partly off-axis loading of an UBB event. The WIAMan TD showed no signs of damage upon inspection. Time history data indicates the magnitude, curve shape, and timing of the response data were sensitive to the off-axis loading in the lower extremity, pelvis, and spine.