Simulation of mine blast deflection - defelction from rigid surfaces

The simulations show that blast deflection from mines is an effective protection method. For a v-shaped bottom plate, with the angle 45° to the horizontal plane, the vertical impulse can be decreased by about 62 %. This is valid under the condition that the bottom plate is so thick that no large deformation occurs. Further, the simulations show that the maximum vertical force on the vehicle can be decreased by about 69 %. This will give correspondingly decrease of the global acceleration of the vehicle. Another way to express this is that a v-shaped bottom plate with the angle 45° can withstand about 3 times as much explosive weight as a flat bottom plate, that is to say the impulse is equal in the two cases. The disadvantage is that a v-shaped bottom plate will increase the height of the vehicle and the space in the lower part of the vehicle can be difficult to make use of. Simulations have also been made with the plate angle 22.5°. Simulations have shown that the shape or placement of the explosive do not have any large influence on the possibility to blast deflection. For an unsymmetrically placed explosive the decrease of the impulse is almost as large as for a symmetrically placed explosive. Further, the simulations have shown that if the explosive is buried or placed on the ground does not have any large influence on the possibility to deflect blast. Comparisons between simulations and analytical calculations, based on empirical experimental relationships, have shown good agreement.