Water Drop Breakup/Impact Damage Thresholds.

Abstract

An investigation of the breakup criteria for water droplets traversing reentry vehicle bow shocks was conducted. Hemispherical, ATJS graphite tipped, 20 mm projectiles were launched at reentry velocities (2.5 km/s to 4.5 km/s) into a single stream of well separated, cloud sized water droplets (20- to 100-micrometer diameter). The projectile nosetip was observed about 1 microsec after impact with the droplets. If the droplets servived transit through the shock layer, impact debris plumes were observed. If the droplets broke up in the shock layer, impact debris was not observed. The bow shock layer aerodynamic conditions were systematically varied to investigate the transition (breakup criteria) over a range of Weber numbers (We) from about 20,000 to 160,000. The results showed good agreement with previous indirect measurements of breakup. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA032429

Entities

People

  • John P. Barber

Organizations

  • University of Dayton Research Institute

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerodynamic Forces
  • Air Flow
  • Air Force
  • Bow Shock
  • Crystal Structure
  • Dead Reckoning
  • Displacement
  • Graphitic Materials
  • Insensitive Explosives
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Measurement
  • Molecular Dynamics
  • Shock
  • Tensile Strength
  • Tin
  • Tungsten

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerosol Science/Aerosol Physics
  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Explosive Engineering.