The Effects of Soldier Gear Encumbrance on Restraints in a Frontal Crash Environment

Abstract

Crash testing and validation of Military vehicles has not to date, accounted for the Soldier gear burden. Actual loads imparted onto the occupant in a representative Military vehicle crash test environment have been limited and do not reflect what an occupant would actually see in this type of an event. The US Army Soldier encumbered with his gear poses a challenge in restraint system design that is not typical in the automotive world. The weight of the gear encumbrance may have a significant effect on how the restraint system performs and protects the occupant during a frontal event. Other system level complications to Military vehicle interiors are secondary impact surfaces, such as instrument panels, ammunition cans and weaponry which provide a path for off-loading the energy generated by the occupant and gear combination. The energy absorption of these surfaces however, is not ideal in current Military vehicle designs and may result in injury or death. The goal of this study was to investigate gear and accelerative pulses as they relate to the restraints and occupant interaction. Data from this study will be used for further restraint development. To limit experimental variation a fixed steel seat structure was utilized throughout the entire testing series. It is hypothesized that determining these effects will lead to a restraint system design that can be optimized to provide restraint for the whole range of occupant sizes and gear variations. Further reductions in occupant injury are achieved by properly tuning the surrounding trim, air bags and cargo contact surfaces. Results of this study indicate the inclusion of the soldier gear may increase the likelihood of occupant excursion and injury. Variation in accelerative pulses resulted in lower injury values and occupant displacements.

Restraint System Design and Evaluation for Military Specific Applications

“…Any manually adjusted segments of the restraints were cinched as tight as possible, with the technicians using both hands and pulling until the restraints were as taut as possible.This type of donning would not represent what is seen in the field; the likeliness of Soldier don restraints for another Soldier is low (but possible in certain situations). An occupant donning a restraint has limited ability to pull restraints on himself while seated as tight as a technician at a testing facility who uses his entire body mass to tighten the restraint on an ATD.During the development cycle of the restraint system for OCP TECD, sled testing was conducted as the first step[7]. The frontal crash sled test series used for this effort utilized a rigid seat mounted on a servo-hydraulic sled.…”

“…The frontal crash sled test series used for this effort utilized a rigid seat mounted on a servo-hydraulic sled. The sled was propelled by an open-loop pneumatic actuator and the acceleration profile was controlled by a closed-loop 10 kHz hydraulic servo-brake A fix rigid steel seat intended for ECE R16 certification testing was modified to accept a 5 th point, to replicate the intended seat design angle and to replicate the mounting of the remainder of the restraints in the intended design locations[7]. The test matrix for the series is represented inTable 14.…”