Human Male and Female Biodynamic Response to Underwater Explosion Events.

Ship survivability is a complex issue. For a ship to remain a viable warfighting asset following damage resulting from enemy munitions such as mines or torpedoes, the ships crew must remain sufficiently uninjured to be capable of employing the ships weapons systems. Sophisticated computer simulations of human response, such as those made possible by the Articulated Total Body ATB Model, may be used to estimate injury potentials, and thus crew survivability, during underwater explosion events. With this goal in mind, accelerometer data and video footage recorded during live fire testing were used to generate and validate ATB models for both a seated and a standing Hybrid III Anthropomorphic Test Device ATD. Subsequently, these models were used to estimate the biodynamic response and injury potentials for both male and female human subjects in a vessel subjected to underwater explosion events. This established a method for evaluating crew survivability for a given underwater explosion induced deck excitation.