Impact injury and the high speed craft acquisition process
Passengers and crew of U. S. Special Operations high speed marine craft (HSC) are subjected to extreme shock loads over prolonged periods during high speed transit in heavy seas. Self-reported medical data suggests a high incidence of spinal injuries resulting from this extreme exposure. Traditional injury models and craft design rules based on craft dynamics do not properly account for severe and discrete shock loading on human subjects. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City (NSWC-PC) and the University of Virginia Center for Applied Biomechanics (UVA-CAB) are developing and evaluating alternative spinal injury models and craft design rules. These models and rules may be used to predict the injury outcome associated with long-term dynamic exposure measurements, to evaluate shock intervention methods such as suspended seats, and to evaluate alternative hull concepts during the craft design process. This paper describes: 1) conventional methods used by the naval architecture community for assessing impact injury from dynamic measurements, 2) proposed alternative and supplemental methods, 3) the relative performance of conventional and alternative methods, and 4) a process for integrating new methods into the high speed craft design process. © 2005: Royal Institution of Naval Architects.
