Function-Oriented Material Design (FOMD) for Innovative Composite Structures against Land Explosives

The objective of the proposed program is to develop the advanced design methodologies, associated software modules, and physical prototypes for innovative composite structure design concepts that can be used in the Army’s FCS and FTTS to protect vehicles and occupants against various explosives. We propose to develop a multi-level and multi-scenario blast simulation and design system, which integrates three new major technologies originally developed at MKP Inc., namely an advanced mine-soil-composite interaction model, which is developed in our Phase I program, an award-winning design methodology, called Function-Oriented Material Design (FOMD), and a novel patent-pending composite material concept, called Biomimetic Tendon-Reinforced (BTR) material. The developed system will enable the prediction, designing, and prototyping of composite structures for a wide range of damage scenarios in various blast events, ranging from vehicle rollover, localized structural failure, blast fragment penetration, to crew injuries. The different levels of simulation and design capabilities will be implemented in an integrated software system called FOMD-Blast with well-defined graphic user interfaces as detailed in the proposal. A novel blast-protective composite concept, BTR-Bl, is also proposed in this program as a proof of concept for the technologies developed, which features six functional modules. The major design goal is to meet the blast protection requirements with other essential features, such as light-weight, flexibility, maintainability, and reduced life-cycle cost. This BTR-Bl concept will be optimized using the simulation and design capabilities developed in this program, and will be fabricated for further performance evaluation.