Personnel Casualty Assessment for Explosion in the Subway Platform

The subway station is easy to be attacked by terrorist bombings, and it will cause heavy casualties. In this paper, a comprehensive casualty assessment method for personnel in the subway structure was established based on the existing personnel injury model. The spatial distribution characteristics of the shock wave suffered by the personnel in the subway platform were obtained. Combined with the comprehensive casualty assessment method, the personnel casualty area for the explosions in the subway platform was divided. The results show that for the same explosive charge, the maximum positive phase impulse generated by the explosion at the edge of the platform is smallest. The “notch effect” for the stair exit will increase the shock wave load. When the explosive is exploded in the center of the platform, the smaller the explosive charge is, the more obvious the “notch effect” is. When the explosive charge reaches 40 kg, the personnel safety area is reduced to a certain extent behind the stair except for the explosion happening at the stair. Also, the higher the shield door is, the larger the safety area behind the stair is.

An Analysis of Engagement Algorithms for Real-Time Weapons Effects

Performance and fidelity requirements are the main drivers when selecting algorithms for real-time weapons effects. In many cases, look-up tables are the method of choice for real-time applications. Look-up tables have had wide-spread use in trade studies, planning tools, training simulations, and other applications and have proven to be both extremely valuable for real-time casualty assessment and at times misunderstood in what capabilities they provide. Look-up tables facilitate fast retrieval of vulnerability data, with measurable trade-offs between memory requirements, computation requirements, and fidelity. As processing power has increased, higher-fidelity algorithms of casualty assessment have gained wider use, suggesting that look-up tables may eventually become obsolete. This paper describes the casualty assessment modeling spectrum from low fidelity to high fidelity, including look-up tables, curve fits, physics-based models, and finite element codes. Each type of model is examined, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Guidelines for how to determine what model type to select and what factors should be considered when selecting a model are discussed. Principles outlined in this paper are being used to support model selection for the OneTESS program, the Army's next generation tactical engagement simulation system.

Live Fire Test and Evaluation Ergonomics Projects

The live fire test and evaluation (LFT&E) program is oriented towards providing a realistic assessment of the survivability and lethality of a military system. A component of every live fire test is an assessment of crew survivability. Three major ergonomics related projects, operational requirements-based casualty assessment (ORCA), combined toxic gas modeling, and gravitational loss of consciousness (G-LOC), are described. ORCA is a comprehensive standardized methodology for assessing personnel casualties following weapon induced injury. The combined toxic gas model is an incapacitation model that incorporates complex physicochemical interactions between gases and tissues and accommodates experimental data across animal species and humans. Two G-LOC related efforts are discussed. The first endeavor is expanding upon the automatic ground collision avoidance system (GCAS). The second project is being conducted via five tasks.