Blast mitigation strategies for vehicles using shape optimization methods

This thesis is concerned with the study of blast effects on vehicular structures. The specific problem of a point source blast originating under the vehicle hull is considered, and its impact on the solid body is measured in terms of the total impulse acting on the vehicle. Simplified two-dimensional and three-dimensional computational models are developed to simulate this problem, and the effect of vehicle hull shape on the net impulse loading on the vehicle is analyzed over varying initial blast intensities. Blast mitigation strategies are proposed to minimize blast impact by identifying optimal shapes for the vehicle hull for which net impulse acting on the vehicle is minimized.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computation for Design and Optimization Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Gurumurthy, Ganesh

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Raúl Radovitzky.

• Computation for Design and Optimization Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45759

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45759