Evaluation of Energy Attenuating Floor Mats for Protection of Lower Limbs From Anti-Vehicular Landmines

Abstract

During an anti-vehicular landmine event, the lower legs are particularly vulnerable to injury. Energy-attenuating (EA) floor mats are appealing in their potential to protect against the high-rate loading associated with such events, while consuming minimal space within the vehicle. To examine the efficacy of these mats, five commercially-available EA products were subjected to loading in an impact testing machine against an Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) leg. Over a range of test velocities, the ability of the mats to reduce axial tibial force in the ATD leg was quantified. Several of the mats reduced the tibial force by approximately 75% at the highest impact speed tested; however, when the results were extrapolated to the level of previously reported floor velocities, the injury threshold would be exceeded for all materials. EA floor mats are able to dissipate much of the energy from a blast, but cannot mitigate all of the loading to the lower legs during a landmine blast event.