Design of Composite Vehicle Structures and Armors against Blast Attacks

Although there are some analytical tools available in the literature, they are not necessary aiming at blast survivability designs. Although there are some composite armors available in the market, they are not necessary of optimal designs. There is still a room to improve the analytical tools and a way to achieve optimal designs. In fact, efforts in research and development for analytical tools and composite designs are continuously required. This proposed program is to develop a multi-functional blast model which accounts for various environments, such as in open air and buried by soil and to formulate a numerically accurate and computationally efficient computer code which can be used for designing thick-section composites, sandwich composite structures and hybrid composite armors. Combining the blast model and the computer code, the analytical tool will be used to design composite structures and composite armors for the Future Combat Systems manned ground vehicles. As all analytical tools require validation and all simulation results require verification, an innovative experimental technique will be used to complete the optimization process of the composite designs. The innovative technique is based on a laboratory testing facility which is capable of providing necessary tests simulating violent environments encountered in Army's operations, such as blast attack and ballistic impact. This proposed program, if accomplished, will help to improve the composite designs and to accelerate the composite vehicles production. A business based on the end products, i.e. the complete design system and optimal composite designs, will prove to be beneficial to both military and civilian applications because they are useful to fight wars in the combat zone as well as in the homeland.