Mine Blast Resistant Crew Seat

To mitigate the significant vertical accelerations caused by land mines, an innovative approach is proposed for mine-blast resistant seats for use in the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) and Interim Armored Vehicle (IAV) platforms. Unique energy absorbing metal foam canisters are being designed for installation as legs on Army vehicle seats. Designs for new diver's and crew seats are suggested that mitigate injuries following a land mine blast load of 1840 g applied over 0.32 ms at the vehicle floor. The vertical dynamic loads experienced by vehicle seat occupants are attenuated such that no acceleration peak above 20 g persists for more than 7 ms, and corresponding vertical displacements of the seated passenger are minimal. Advanced finite element modeling of the seat/occupant system under the blast load has led to the optimization of preliminary designs. These preliminary seats will be instrumented and mine blast tested to validate their designs. Test data will be correlated with simulation predictions, and improvements will be implemented in the seat designs as necessary. When the designs are finalized, follow-up manufacturing preparation (including production cost estimation), marketing, and commercialization activities will occur for the new blast resistant Army vehicle seats. (P-030412)