Vehicle Roof Inflatable Impact Bladder (VRIIB)

Non-traditional interior roof military vehicle impact injury prevention technologies address the challenge to provide warfighter survivability, allowing them to complete their mission, by preventing impact related injuries such as skull fractures and neck injuries, otherwise incurred during underbody blast, crash and rollover events. The solution accounts for the full range of occupants to include the 5th female, 50th male, and 95th male occupant sizes. Additionally it takes into account the occupant may be wearing the ACH helmet and additional gear worn on the body of the occupant. The occupant shall be considered restrained during the blast event. Injury data from theater shows mounted warfighter head, neck and upper spine injuries due to occupant impacts with the vehicle interior during blast, crash and rollover events, frequently occur (Head Injury Analysis for DOT & E Study, JTAPIC RFI 2013-N0114, 10APR2013 and 2012-N0161 Blast Injury Prevalence Rate BIPSR, 10JAN2013). Injuries to the head include traumatic brain injuries (TBI) primarily concussions, skull fractures, face fractures and neck/upper spine fractures. The focus of this topic is to reduce injuries related to skull and neck fractures. Traumatic brain injuries are out of scope of this topic. Although it can be assumed that if impact energy is mitigated to reduced fractures, TBIs related to occupant impacts is also likely to be reduced. Non-traditional technologies may include, and are not limited to; active protective technologies, optimized interior geometric design and a durable, flame resistant exposed surface allowing protection for multiple impact directions. Interior impact protection shall be developed for military vehicle applications, such as; the HMMWV (High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle, AMPV (Armored Multiple Purpose Vehicle), Abrams, Bradley Fighting Vehicle, Stryker, 20 T Truck and HTV (Heavy Transport Vehicle). Non-traditional technologies are needed to address military vehicle design trade-offs such as; i) minimizing vehicle packaging space claims and non-intrusive designs, and ii) lighter weight than traditional technologies such as energy absorption materials.