Practical evaluation of the MiL-Lx lower leg when subjected to simulated vehicle under belly blast load conditions

Abstract

This study presents the initial results pertaining to a practical investigation into the robustness of the newly developed Military Extremity (MiL-Lx) lower leg, with respect to repeatability and reproducibility under typical mine-protected vehicle landmine blast load conditions. This evaluation was based on results obtained from two separate test rigs exhibiting different loading mechanisms, namely the Test Rig for Occupant Safety Systems (TROSSTM) and the CSIR Lower Limb Impactor (LLI). The results show that the Mil-Lx lower leg appears to be robust and is less sensitive to loading method, temperature, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and position changes than other lower limb surrogates tested previously.