Numerical Simulation of an Armored Vehicle Underbelly Subjected to Air Blast Loading

In modern warfare, anti-vehicular mine attack is one of the critical consideration in the design of an armored personnel vehicle. Nowadays, the use of computational tools is a common approach in vehicle design process for evaluating the vehicle and its occupant’s safety or protective levels. This paper presents a finite element analysis carried out on the underbelly of SIBMAS AFSV 6x6 armored vehicle using LSDYNA 3D software when subjected to air blast loading. The Load Blast Enhanced (LBE) model using 6kg of the TNT was used as the detonation model, whereas the explosive to vehicle ground clearance was set at 400 mm. The critical design parameters such as pressure, acceleration and deflection time history curves at the blast loaded underbelly was computed for different explosive charges according to STANAG 4569 protection levels. It was found that developed finite element model can be further use to predict the blast related responses of future mechanical modifications that can be implemented to the vehicle structures or materials