Computational investigation of blast survivability and off-road performance of an up-armoured high-mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle

Abstract

Since ballistic and blast survivability and off-road handling and stability of military vehicles, such as the high-mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV), are two critical vehicle performance aspects, they both (including the delicate balance between them) have to be considered when a new vehicle is being designed or an existing vehicle retrofitted (e.g. up-armoured). Finite-element-based transient non-linear dynamics and multi-body longitudinal dynamics computational analyses were employed, relatively, in the present work to address the following two specific aspects of the performance of an HMMWV: first, the ability of the vehicle to survive detonation of a landmine shallow buried into sand underneath the right wheel of the vehicle and, second, the ability of the vehicle to withstand a simple straight-line brake manoeuvre during off-road travel without compromising its stability and safety of its occupants. Within the first analysis, the kinematic and structural responses (including large-scale rotation and deformation, buckling, plastic yielding, failure initiation, fracture, and fragmentation) of the HMMWV to the detonation of a landmine were analysed computationally using the general-purpose transient non-linear dynamics analysis software ABAQUS/Explicit. The second analysis was carried out using Simpack, a general-purpose multi-body dynamics program, and the main purpose of this analysis was to address the vehicle stability during the off-road travel. The same sand model was used in both types of analysis. Finally, the computational results obtained are compared with general field-test observations and data in order to judge the physical soundness and fidelity of the present approach.

Computational investigation of impact energy absorption capability of polyurea coatings via deformation-induced glass transition

“…Within this framework, the aforementioned equations are then solved using a second-order accurate explicit scheme. More details regarding the use of ABAQUS/Explicit in solving transient non-linear dynamics problems can be found in our previous work [23,24].…”

Analysis of steel-with-composite material substitution in military vehicle hull floors subjected to shallow-buried landmine-detonation loads

“…It should be noted that, due to the assumed symmetry of the (effectively non-symmetric) computational domain, potential rotation 422 MMMS 10,3 of the hull-floor/vehicle and motions parallel to the ground could not be analyzed. As shown in our previous work (Grujicic et al, 2009a), when the mine is buried under the center of the vehicle hull-floor, the extent of the non-considered rotational and translational motions is relatively small. Figure 2 shows an initial configuration of the (quarter) computational domain analyzed.…”

Numerical simulations and experimental analysis of a vehicle cabin and its occupants subjected to a mine blast

“…Grujicic et al 10 revealed that dynamic loading functions are not always suitable by analysing the response of a vehicle in a mine blast case. also investigated the effect of up-armouring on the injury of the occupants, the off-road braking and sharp-turn performance and the off-road vehicle performance by using the finite element modelling method.…”