NUMERICAL ANALYSES OF BURIED MINE EXPLOSIONS WITH EMPHASIS ON EFFECT OF SOIL PROPERTIES ON LOADING

may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright owner. ii Dreams come true. Without that possibility nature would not incite us to have them. — John Updike During armed conflicts or peace-support operations, most casualtiesare attributed to vehicle-landmine accidents and thus, mine protection fea-tures are a prerequisite for vehicles serving in these areas. Previously, mine protection research was predominantly experiment driven and focussed on structural deformation. Soil parameters were not observed and the influence of soil was not considered. Accurate soil modelling is necessary because experimental studies have shown that soil, in particular saturated soil, has a significant effect on the magni-tude of landmine blast loading on a vehicle. This research describes a numerical modelling approach for studying soil-blast interaction in landmine explosions. The numerical analysis is carried out using the non-linear dynamic analysis software