VULNERABILITY OF LIGHT GROUND VEHICLES AND THEIR CREWS TO ACCELERATION RESULTING FROM BATTLEFIELD THREATS

摘要

For light combat vehicles, both existing models as well as future vehicles such as the future combat system family of vehicles, the threat of crew injury due to pure (noncontact) acceleration, (i.e., without crew impact with a solid surrounding object) is considered to be high and can result in crew incapacitation. The present effort examines conventional battlefield threats to such a class of vehicles. The three main threats are those of land mine blast, blast from high-explosive munitions, and impact by large-caliber kinetic energy projectiles. This work encompasses two main steps: (1) to estimate the vehicular acceleration due to those considered insults and (2) to estimate the resulting acceleration of the crew inside the vehicle. Simplified engineering models and methodologies are developed to provide estimates for the acceleration, displacement, and velocity of the vehicle. As a first phase, engineering assumptions and generic geometries, instead of detailed system configurations, are used to gauge the resulting outcome. Comparison with available data is made whenever possible. Use of the Articulated Total Body code is made in a simplified setting to provide the crew bodily acceleration. Comparing those bodily acceleration values with the established medical thresholds of injuries for humans provides the prediction of possible crew injury due to the particular insult applied.