BLAST SURVIVABILITY AND SEAT DROP TOWER TESTING

The inclusion of energy-absorbing (EA) seats in combat vehicles has been shown to greatly reduce the likelihood of upper-body injuries during mine blast events. A drop tower is one of the common low-cost methods of testing an energy-absorbing seat to determine the vehicle acceleration and associated level of blast that it can protect against. However, the lack of a standard drop tower test procedure for mine blast purposes means that different facilities perform tests and analyze and report results in an inconsistent manner. As a consequence, the reported performance of any given seat tested in a drop tower may not accurately reflect the degree to which it would protect a soldier during an actual blast event. This paper describes the nature of the problems associated with current drop tower testing, and proposes a solution to eliminate much of the ambiguity surrounding test results. We will describe proposed test and analysis methods that can lead to a more accurate and conservative estimate of EA seat performance during an underbody blast event, resulting in better seat designs and increased soldier survivability.