Blast Protection Design of a Military Vehicle System Using a Magic Cube Approach

A Magic Cube (MQ) approach for crashworthiness design has been proposed in previous research [1]. The purpose of this paper is to extend the MQ approach to the blast protection design of a military vehicle system. By applying the Space Decompositions and Target Cascading processes of the MQ approach, three subsystem design problems are identified to systematize the blast protection design problem of a military vehicle. These three subsystems, including seat structure, restraint system, and under-body armor structure, are most influential to the overall blast-protective design target. The effects of a driver seat subsystem design and restraint-system subsystem design on system blast protection are investigated, along with a focused study on the under-body blast-protective structure design problem. Two design processes, design for worst case (DWC) and equal protection design (EPD), are proposed and investigated for the blast-protective structure design with the consideration of uncertainty in a blast event. The objective is to minimize the added weight of the armor structure under given protection requirement. It is shown that a general blast protection design problem can be solved effectively by employing specific elements of the Magic Cube.