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Small Scale Models Subjected to Buried Blast Loading Part II: Frame Accelerations with Hulls and Additional Mitigation Methods

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Abstract

Small scale models representing key vehicle structural elements, including bottom-mounted hulls and other relatively simple strategies for blast mitigation, have been manufactured and subjected to a range of buried blast loading conditions. By varying surface stand-off distance and depth of burial for several hull and structure configurations, the response of full-scale vehicle frames has been quantified through input-scaling. High speed stereo-vision and surface-mounted accelerometers are used to measure accelerations during the blast loading process. The maximum vertical acceleration and the Head Injury Criterion (HIC15) at selected frame locations are quantified as metrics to assess the severity of the blast event. Results show that (a) inverted and standard V-shaped hulls provide essential blast mitigation capability, reducing the maximum frame accelerations over 100X, with similar reductions also measured for HIC15, (b) stiffened frame structure locations experience substantially lower levels of acceleration and HIC15 than measured previously on the floorboard at the expense of decreased damping of structural vibrations and (c) hull coating systems such as polyurea provide significant additional mitigation, though at the expense of increased overall weight.

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Notes

  1. Recent analytical and experimental work [20, 21] suggests that an inverted V-shaped hull possesses a greater capacity for deflecting blast impulse than the traditional V-shape. Because of this advantage, inverted V-shaped hulls are used in this study.

  2. The springs are made by first threading an aluminum rod on a lathe with a 10-32 die. The center of the rod is then twisted around a larger rigid rod with a diameter of 19.05 mm. Tensile tests performed on the springs reveal that they have a stiffness value of 104.9 N/mm, providing a total stiffness of 1258.8 N/mm for the entire connection.

  3. The 3.18 mm springs are manufactured in the same fashion as the larger springs, except a 5-40 die was used.

  4. The rigid foam fractured during blast loading, with negligible mitigation effect, is not used in any further studies.

  5. Measurements from another independent stereovision system are in agreement with our vision-based measurements for Experiment 18, providing additional confidence in the vision-based measurements. It is conjectured that the slight retardation seen in the accelerometer data may have been due to variations in the screw connection between accelerometer and frame.

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Acknowledgements

The technical support of Dr. Bruce Lamattina and the financial assistance provided through the Army Research Office grant DAAD19-02-1-0343, ARO Contract # W911NF-06-1-0216 and ARO Contract # Z-849901 and the assistance provided by Dr. A. Rajendren and Dr. M. Zikry and the support provided through DURIP grant DAAD19-01-1-0391 are gratefully acknowledged. Finally, the financial support provided by the University of South Carolina College of Engineering and Computing in support of the DURIP award is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    X. Zhao, M. Sutton & X. Deng

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    R. Hurley, W. Fourney & U. Leiste

Authors
  1. X. Zhao
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  2. R. Hurley
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  3. M. Sutton
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  4. W. Fourney
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  5. U. Leiste
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  6. X. Deng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to X. Zhao.

Appendices

Appendix A-1

Fig. 7
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Schematic for inverted V-shaped hull (unit is inch)

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Appendix A-2

Fig. 8
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Input-scaled accelerometer data for experiments 18-26 at center of left long edge span, center of right long edge span and corner of the frame. (Exp 18-26: DoB = 9.91 mm, SoD to hull = 25.40 mm)

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Appendix A-3

Fig. 9
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Input-scaled HIC data of experiments 18-26 at center of left long edge span, center of right long edge span and corner of the frame. (Exp 18-26: DoB = 9.91 mm, SoD to hull = 25.40 mm)

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Zhao, X., Hurley, R., Sutton, M. et al. Small Scale Models Subjected to Buried Blast Loading Part II: Frame Accelerations with Hulls and Additional Mitigation Methods. Exp Mech 54, 857–869 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-013-9842-2

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