Validation of a Simulation Process for Assessing the Response of a Vehicle and Its Occupants to an Explosive Threat

Lighter weight military vehicles facilitate faster transport, higher mobility, fuel conservation, and a reduced ground footprint of supporting forces. At the same time the design of ground combat vehicles to survive a blast from a mine or from any other explosive threats is of great interest in order to provide an appropriate level of protection for the vehicle and its occupants. Weight reduction and high levels of survivability are mutually competing objectives. Therefore, a significant effort must be invested in order to ensure that the vehicle’s survivability is not compromised. Full size blast tests are expensive and time consuming to organize. Using a numerical simulation for predicting the interaction of the blast load with the vehicle and the effects of the explosion to the occupants’ safety can minimize the number of such trials, and it will identify the design changes which will increase the survivability of the vehicle and the crew. Such simulation capability must be physics based and able to account for non-centerline explosive threats; the load applied on the vehicle from the blast pressure and the high velocity projectiles (which can be part of the explosive threat); the interaction between the explosive threat, the vehicle, and the occupant; the soil/structure interaction and the gross vehicle response; and the effects of blast mitigation material, restraint system, and seat design to the loads developed on the members of an occupant. A Blast Event Simulation sysTem (BEST) has been developed for facilitating the easy use of the LS-DYNA solvers for conducting a complete sequence of explosive simulations. An Anthropometric Test Device (ATD) can also be included in the simulations for assessing loads developed on an occupant during an explosion. The main technical capabilities embedded in the BEST simulation process along with comparisons between simulation results and test data available in the literature are presented in this paper. Details from a validation study associated with the response of a generic structure and a ADT placed inside the structure to the loads from an explosion are also discussed.