Modelling and analysis of the vehicle underbody and the occupants subjected to a shallow-buried-mine blast impulse

When a charge is ignited at the bottom of a vehicle, the underbody and the occupants are the most vulnerable. The protection of the vehicle underbody is still a significant problem in the environment of a buried-mine blast impulse. The first part of this study presents an algorithm that can be used to simulate a shallow-buried-mine blast. Models using the multiple-material arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian algorithm and the initial-impulse mine algorithm respectively were constructed on the basis of experiments carried out by Anderson et al. The accuracy and superiority of the initial-impulse mine algorithm were proved by comparing the results for the jump velocity and the computation time. The second part introduces a blast experiment on a full-scale armoured vehicle. The occupant was represented by a Hybrid III 50th-percentile adult-male dummy. A numerical model was established using the initial-impulse mine method; the seat position represented the worst-case situation, which was same as for the experiments. A comparison of the experimental data and the simulation results, which include the peak acceleration of the floor and the force to which the dummy’s tibia is subjected, showed good agreement.