The use of improvised explosive devices against moving vehicles has been on the rise recently. Their explosions induce devastating effects on vehicle occupants. Blast mitigation seats are used as a counter measure to reduce such harmful effects. This paper presents the scientific work for evaluating the efficacy of blast mitigation seats. The work involves designing and building a custom anthropometric test device (ATD) and a drop tower test facility that is used to simulate the drop of a vehicle from heights up to 10 m. The ATD was equipped with two accelerometers; at the neck and at the pelvis. For validation, a multibody dynamics model was developed to simulate the drop test and the results were compared with ones from experiments. An overall root mean square error of 1.28 g was achieved. The test facility was then used to measure the performance of a blast mitigation seat. The results showed that blast mitigation seats reduced peak accelerations on the pelvis and neck areas by 92% and 87% respectively and this translates into moving predicted injuries from fatal to moderate.
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