Analytical Prediction of Lower Leg Injury in a Vehicular Mine Blast Event

摘要

Modeling the effects of anti-vehicular mines on the lower human body through both experiments and finite element models is expensive. The objective of this project is to produce accurate predictions of axial tibia loads through the development and verification of a one-dimensional (1-D) analytical model. In this effort, a 1-D analytical model of the lower leg created in this project was evaluated for its accuracy in predicting the maximum tibia force given a displacement over a period of time. The calculated forces were compared to the experimental data presented in Bir et al. (2006). The analysis shows that the model, which uses only springs, leads to convergence of the calculated maximum tibia force. The ideal number of springs to use in the analytical model is determined by the numerical integration method. Using a simple spring-mass system of variable number of elements, the author found that using the two-step Runge-Kutta numerical integration method with 50 springs and a scaling factor dependent on maximum floor velocity is accurate with the experimental data presented for the Hybrid-III 50% Dummy in Bir et al. (2006). Further verification using more experimental data is necessary to confirm the validity of the model.