Energy Absorbing Seat For All Occupant Sizes and Blast Conditions

Currently, there is not a blast mitigating seat in US army ground combat vehicles that can protect the central 90% of occupant population, unencumbered 5th percentile female up to a fully encumbered 95th percentile male (up to additional 65 lbs), where 1) the vertical blast severity is characterized by a Delta-V up to 12.0 0.5 m/s or greater within 5.0 1.0 msec and 2) slam down is characterized by 25% of the initial load characterization for 3.0 1.0 m/s[1]. The primary objective of this SBIR is to develop an energy absorbing seat system for use on a currently fielded seat or a new energy absorbing seat to protect the occupants in mine blast conditions, as stated above.