Shock gauge system

A shock gauge system for measuring an external blast to a hull comprising:

• at least one accelerometer to produce acceleration data in response to the external blast;
• a crush block;
• a linear displacement potentiometer (LDP) device to generate displacement data of a mass being pushed into the crush block when reacting to the external blast;
• a housing with an opening, and wherein the crush block and the LDP device are located within an internal chamber of the housing;
• a camera to capture images of movement of the mass through the opening in the housing;
• and
• a processor logic to verify if the acceleration data is valid by correlating the acceleration data to at least one of the group consisting of:
• the displacement data, the images of the movement of the mass, and an amount of displacement into the crush block by the mass, and wherein when the acceleration data is valid, marking the acceleration data as usable to create a more blast resistant hull.

A method of analyzing an external blast to a hull comprising:

• attaching a shock gauge device to a floor of a hull, wherein the shock gauge device comprises a housing, a linear displacement potentiometer (LDP) device positioned within the housing, wherein the LDP device includes an LDP cylinder and an LDP rod at least partially slidably located within the LDP cylinder;
• a mass attached to a lower end of the LDP rod and positioned within the housing;
• and at least one accelerometer attached to the shock gauge device;
• attaching a camera to the floor of the hull;
• detonating an explosive device positioned underneath the hull causing an external blast measuring acceleration with the at least one accelerometer to capture acceleration data;
• measuring linear displacement of the mass with the LDP device to capture linear displacement data;
• capturing images of the mass with the camera to create captured images of the displacement of the mass;
• correlating the acceleration data to at least one of the linear displacement data and the captured images to determine if the acceleration data is valid data;
• and
• using the acceleration data to create an improved hull when the acceleration data is valid.