Patent ID: 8640594

Claim:
An underbody blast shield for deflecting a blast incident on a ground vehicle, the blast shield comprising: an impact section having an exterior impact surface to face a source of the blast, wherein the exterior impact surface defines a cross-sectional profile defining a smooth continuous curve; wherein the profile defines a catenary generally described by the equation: y = a 2 ⁢ ( ⅇ x a + ⅇ - x a ) wherein: x is the coordinate on the profile along a vehicle lateral axis; y is the coordinate on the profile along a vehicle vertical axis; a is the curvature coefficient that defines the curve aspect ratio; and e is the base of the natural logarithm function, approximated by 2.7182818 . . . ; and wherein the profile defines a catenary over the entirety of the profile, and the profile is defined by at least a majority of the width of the impact surface of the blast shield.