Advanced Analytical Models for Innovative Vehicle Composite Structures Against land Explosives

We propose to develop advanced analytical models and design tools for innovative composite structures in Future Combat Systems (FCS), which are able to protect vehicle and occupants against antitank (AT) landmines and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The ultimate goal is to fill the gap between the advanced blast simulation and the innovative composite structure design with the integrated new simulation and design capabilities. The proposed effort will lead to an effective design tool, which can be used in a function-oriented design environment for optimizing multidisciplinary objectives for composite structures, including blast protection, structural performance, light weight, and low cost. We propose a multi-level and multi-scenario blast simulation system, which integrates an advanced soil-blast model with existing state-of-the-art blast simulation techniques for predicting a wide range of damage scenarios in a blast event, ranging from vehicle rollover to localized structural failures. The different levels of structural responses will provide the necessary information for setting targets in the development of new military vehicles. The advanced soil-explosion model developed in this program will provide the loading conditions with desired multi-level fidelities for predicting dynamic responses of the vehicle structures. During the Phase I effort, we will develop a systematic approach with necessary subsystem software modules for a new capability to predict landmine-soil-vehicle-crew interactions. The major focus of the Phase I development will be on a new computational model for landmine-soil interaction, which combines a phenomenological model and a multi-scale model to increase the accuracy and efficiency of the blast simulation. The multi-scale model is critical when the soil fracture properties need to include granularity, realistic soil fragmentation, and ejecta formation. This is in distinct comparison with the other available models, in which dynamic soil state equations are devoted to the high compression regimes, but which are not accurate for soil behaviors in tension or dilatation as occurring in shallow-buried mine explosions.