Numerical examination of the influence of headrest use on the body of a soldier in a vehicle loaded with a 25 kg side load.

Specialist vehicles are exposed to the effects of multiple weapons at enemy’s disposal, mainly improvised explosive devices (IED). It results in the fact that contemporary tactical-technical requirements indicate methods of forming military vehicles’ armoured bodies in order to provide the crews’ high survival capability on the battlefield. Such activities are connected, among others, to providing proper level of protection against mines of different categories (various explosive materials, different masses, various explosive location). The fundamental issue appears while creating effective crew and internal equipment protection against mines [1, 2], and especially against improvised explosive devices which may contain explosive charges of considerable sizes. So far, a significant amount of research on human survivability has been conducted. The main driving force behind progress in this domain has been aviation. Military activities in irregular conflicts cause the enemy to make use of materials which are called improvised explosive devices due to their classification method. They may have local or global effect on a vehicle, depending on their size. In case of an explosion having effect on a vehicle, the results may be classified as: knocking the vehicle over [3], – tossing the vehicle into the air (the crew is affected during both – raising and falling) [2, 5], armour penetration, – membrane wave appearance [4, 5]. – The main factor of the explosion’s impact on the crew is acceleration. The explosion (pressure impulse) affecting the side of a vehicle through construction elements such as seat base or the body (floor) causes perpendicular and longitudinal angular, as well as transverse BArnAT W. numerical examination of the influence of headrest use on the body of a soldier in a vehicle loaded with a 25 kg side load. Eksploatacja i niezawodnosc – Maintenance and reliability 2015; 17 (4): 513–518, http://dx.doi.org/10.17531/ein.2015.4.5.