FEM ANALYSIS OF BLAST PROOF SANDWICH COMPOSITE TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMAL GROUND CLEARANCE OF MINE PROTECTION VEHICLE

Abstract

It has been a constant endeavor of the armed forces to build vehicles that can transport soldiers in hostile terrain while reducing threats to their lives. The strength of these vehicles used to mitigate the blast effect is directly proportional to the mass of the explosives used for the blast. The challenge lies in designing an operationally effective mine protection vehicle (MPV) with appropriate protective measures to safeguard the lives of its occupants while maintaining high fuel efficiency high. It has been reported that the greater the standoff distance of explosive from the hull of a vehicle, the less is the effect of the blast. However, the ground clearance of a vehicle cannot be increased beyond a limit as it would seriously affect its stability. In this study, the optimal ground clearance of MVPs was investigated so that any blast would have the least effect on the vehicle chassis. The blast-proof material used in this study is a novel sandwich composite invented by Ariharan et al. (2019).