In the paper, some selected aspects of the human body motion in a vehicle subjected to a blast load are discussed, especially as related to the dominant injury area, the vertebral column. As far as the blast attenuating seat is concerned, various strategies of human body acceleration are presented and tested against the biomechanical criterion – Dynamic Response Index (DRIz). The profile of the force acting on the passenger is optimized with the use of a simple model. The results show that for this criterion, the two‐staged acceleration process is optimal with the first impulse compressing the spine and second impulse keeping the spine compressed.

The full system containing the human body model (deformable Hybrid III ATD) and the blast attenuating seat were prepared in the LS‐DYNA explicit code. The numerical simulations of the body motion for the range of boundary conditions and various damping element stiffness were conducted and results were discussed including obtained DRIz values. The importance of the cushion stiffness and seat belts role was emphasized and the ability of constant force damping system to generate two‐pulse acceleration profile was discussed.