The emergence of improvised explosive devices (IED) significantly extended the spectrum of possiblethreat mechanisms to military vehicles and their occupants. Especially buried high explosive (HE)charges lead to new and originally not investigated loading conditions during their detonation. It is theinteraction of the embedding geomaterial with the detonation products that leads to a strongly increasedglobal impulse transfer on the vehicle with following high accelerations on the vehicle occupant. Thispaper presents a comprehensive approach for the analysis of occupant loading. In a first step, we presentthe so called ring technology which allows the experimental determination of the locally resolvedspecific impulse distribution on a vehicle floor due to buried charge detonation. A complementarymethod is the use of scaled model vehicles that allows the determination of global vehicle loading parameterssuch as jump height or vehicle accelerations. Both techniques were used to study the influenceof burial conditions as burial depth, embedding material or water content on the impulse transfer ontothe vehicle. These experimental data are used to validate material models for the embedding sand orgravel materials. This validated material description is the basis for numerical simulation models used inthe assessment of occupant safety. In the last step, we present a simulation model for a generic militaryvehicle including a Hybrid III occupant dummy that is used for the determination of biomechanicaloccupant exposure levels. Typical occupant loadings are evaluated and correlated with burial conditionsas HE mass and global momentum transfer.
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