Design and optimization of joints to mitigate shock in military vehicles under blast and impact loading

Shock from a blast loading may risk the lives of the occupants of a military vehicle and damage the sensitive electronic components within it. The objective of this work is to develop an approach to mitigate shocks due to mine blast loading and impact loading by proper design of joint(s) in the military vehicles. Two types of vehicle configurations are studied for this purpose. The first vehicle is studied to examine ways to mitigate shock due to mine blast while the second vehicle is studied to mitigate shock due to projectile impact load. The proposed research includes design of joints in a way to disrupt/reflect/absorb the incident shock loading due to these transient events. The overall purpose of the study is to determine optimal types and configurations of joints that dissipate energy and incorporate the advantageous joint designs.