Mitigation of Explosive Blast Effects on Vehicle Floorboard

Abstract

This thesis investigates methods for mitigating the blast effects on the floorboard of passenger vehicles due to the detonation of explosives buried in water saturated sand underneath vehicles. The effects on floorboard acceleration of adding a vehicle hull, several types of floorboard bracing, the use of foam to fill the gap between the floorboard and hull, and the use of foam to isolate the floorboard from the hull. In addition, several tests have been conducted to examine how the distance of the floorboard from the ground affects the acceleration of the floorboard after the detonation. Testing showed that the addition of a hull to a vehicle, the hulls geometry, bracing of the floorboard, and increasing ground clearance all are able to help reduce floorboard accelerations. However, floorboard bracing had the potential to make accelerations much higher it is hit by the hull during testing. Foam filling between the hull and floorboard as well as a foam frame to isolate the floorboard from the hull did not have positive results. The primary method of investigation is differentiating a velocity profile found with the use of bar magnet velocity gages on the small scale model floorboard. Several other possible methods of investigation are discussed.