Title: Quantification of the design relationship between ground vehicle weight and occupant safety under blast loading

Authors: Steven Hoffenson; Sudhakar Arepally; Michael Kokkolaras; Panos Y. Papalambros

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2250 G.G. Brown Building, 2350 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA ' US Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center, 6501 E. 11 Mile Road, Building 215, Warren, Michigan 48092, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2250 G.G. Brown Building, 2350 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2250 G.G. Brown Building, 2350 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

Abstract: Military ground vehicle design must consider the threat posed by underbody blasts to new vehicles and their occupants, while also accounting for weight reduction goals for improving fuel economy and mobility. A two-stage process is presented to model the blast event, using LS-DYNA for simulating vehicle response and MADYMO for the occupant's response. Issues including computational expense, objective function formulation and multi-objective seating system design optimisation are addressed in detail, and three different blastworthiness optimisation formulations are presented and evaluated.

Keywords: military ground vehicles; vehicle design; occupant safety; vehicle safety; blastworthiness; vertical drop tower; design optimisation; optimal design; vehicle weight; blast loading; military vehicles; underbody blasts; simulation; seating design; mathematical modelling; dynamic modelling; multibody dynamics; finite element analysis; FEA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2013.050846

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2013 Vol.61 No.1/2/3/4, pp.204 - 218

Accepted: 21 May 2012
Published online: 12 Apr 2013 *

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