Evaluation of foot protection effectiveness against AP mine blasts: Effect of deflector geometry

Abstract

In this study, the effectiveness of blast deflectors used in protective footwear against antipersonnel (AP) mines was investigated. The tip angle of a V-shaped deflector and the overall shape (symmetrical, unsymmetrical) were chosen as the design parameters to be examined, whereas parameters such as deflector material and wall thickness were kept constant. Both explicit dynamic finite element analysis (LS-Dyna) and blast tests were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of these design parameters. The analysis results were also verified with the blast tests. A visual (qualitative) comparison between the analysis results and the blast tests showed a good agreement on the final deformed geometry of the deflector, which suggested that the simulation was able to capture the energy absorption mechanism of the deflector. The analysis results showed that the peak force transmitted to the leg decreased tremendously with the addition of blast deflectors. When compared to the case with no deflectors, an unsymmetrical and symmetrical deflector reduced the peak force by a factor of 24 and 36, respectively.