UNLV engineers design for Army

That cushion could not only protect the lives of American soldiers, but bolster the status of UNLV’s engineering department.

Next year will mark the culmination of several grants the College of Engineering has earned from the Army, including the test of a seat UNLV engineers have designed to protect soldiers when a bomb explodes underneath their vehicles.

Over the past four years, university engineers have used the roughly $6 million in Army grants to churn out a wealth of productivity: nearly 60 conference papers, 18 masters theses, eight doctoral dissertations and possible patents.

It’s the largest collection of grants UNLV has received from the Army, and has solidified ties between Nevada’s largest university and a highly valuable government contact, officials say.

In addition to the “pneumatic seat system for shock mitigation,” researchers are designing ways to house electronics in ballistics shells and creating better ways for vehicles to absorb blasts.

January’s test of the seat design at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland is a sign of confidence from Army researchers, according to UNLV associate professor Brendan O’Toole.

Army scientists were initially skeptical of the design, which is an inflatable cushion with a honeycomb insert that, during an impact, transfers air from the seat bottom to the seat back.

But when it was strapped to a dummy and dropped from just over four feet earlier this year, it performed well.

As the Army shifts toward a lighter mechanized force, and as soldiers continue to be injured or killed by roadside bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq, researchers are looking toward designing seat systems that can help mitigate blasts.

Seats currently in use in military vehicles are “terrible,” engineering professor Doug Reynolds said. They do little, if anything, to protect occupants.

UNLV is also looking at different chair designs that either crumple to absorb the blast or move up and down on a spring system.

Next spring, UNLV researchers hope the Army tests another invention: a system to house electronics in ballistics shells.

Unlike “smart” missiles, ballistics shells don’t contain electronic devices and can’t steer themselves during flight. That is mostly because electronics can’t survive being projected out of a cannon tube, O’Toole said.

But UNLV is designing a canister to be housed inside the shell that would absorb the intense vibrations and protect the electronics inside.

The canister will be only a few inches in diameter and a few inches tall, likely made out of aluminum and a composite material.

If successful, the design could help usher in a new area of “smart bomb” technology, where the shells could accurately point themselves toward targets.

Eventually, the goal is to have mechanical wings sprout from the shell in mid-flight and steer the projectile toward the target, which is what other scientists at the university are working toward.

The efforts could not only save the lives of American soldiers and civilians in combat situations, but could also provide practical applications for civilian use.

“We’ve been led traditionally by space and defense technology, so everything eventually makes its way back to everyday use,” College of Engineering Dean Eric Sandgren said.

Reynolds, who co-created the seat design, said it has “very significant commercial applications” for use in vehicles that driven off-road.

He has applied for a patent on the design.

And the technology to protect electronic devices could be used in almost anything, from cell phones to computers.

Aside from their practical applications, UNLV’s relationship with the Army will probably yield even more funding.

“That’s kind of the key,” Sandgren said. “You get your nose under the tent and do good work, and you build up your ties and hope to get more work.”

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0440.