My colleagues Dr. Lauren Zaseck and Dr, Jingwen Hu have led thepublication of recent work aimed at improving crash protection for soldiers. Vehicle crashes and rollovers, sometimes secondary to IED blasts, are a leading cause of injury. In this project, funded by the US Army TARDECthrough the Automotive Research Center, we conducted a series of sled tests to assess the performance of various restraint systems. Hybrid-III ATDs were used along with a range of body armor and body borne gear configurations. The results demonstrated that advanced belt system features such as pretensioners and load limiters substantially improve restraint performance. The data also showed that achieving good belt or harness restraint performance with soldiers in body armor and wearing gear is challenging.
January 2017
Crash Protection in Military Vehicles
