Military vehicle underbody blast (UBB) is the cause of many serious injuries in theatre today; however, the effects of these chaotic events on the human body are not well understood. The purpose of this research was to replicate both UBB loading conditions and investigate occupant response in a controlled laboratory setting. In addition to better understanding the response of the human to high rate vertical loading, this test series also aimed to identify high rate injury thresholds. Ten whole body post mortem human surrogate (PMHS) tests were completed using the University of Virginia's ODYSSEY simulated blast rig under a range of loading conditions. Seat pan accelerations ranged from 291 to 738 g's over 3 ms of positive phase duration, and foot pan accelerations from 234 to 858 g's over 3 ms of positive phase duration. Post-test computed tomography (CT) scans and necropsies were performed to determine injuries, and revealed a combination of pelvic, lumbar, thoracic, and lower extremity injuries. The research in this paper discusses pelvis and lower extremity injuries under high rate vertical loads.

Response of the human body to high-rate vertical loading, such as military vehicle underbody blast (UBB), is not well understood because of the chaotic nature of such events. The purpose of this research was to compare the response of postmortem human surrogates (PMHS) and the Hybrid-III anthropomorphic test device (ATD) to simulated UBB loading ranging from 100 to 860 g seat and floor acceleration. Data from 13 whole body PMHS tests were used to create response corridors for vertical loading conditions for the pelvis, T1, head, femur, and tibia; these responses were compared to Hybrid-III responses under matched loading conditions.

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Evaluating marksmanship performance is crucial for Warfighters and competitive shooters alike. Traditionally, only accuracy or hit/miss has been used as the quantitative metric to report performance. In this study, grip strength from U.S. Army Soldiers is compared to marksmanship stability metrics recorded after a field training mission. The data analysis revealed that there is a relationship between grip strength and stability, especially in the less stable standing position. The horizontal and vertical stability measures, as well as trigger control offer new insights into weapon control during target acquisition and trigger pull. These metrics, combined with accuracy and precision, offer a more robust evaluation of a shooter’s performance. Correlating these metrics to grip strength shows a relationship between a shooter’s strength and performance, and can lead to targeted training for better performance. Future studies should continue to use stability metrics when defining performance, as well as investigate additional strength metrics.