On the Aerodynamic Heating of a KE Pentrator - Conductive Material Heating and Thermal Gradients Prior to Transient Impact Loading
Abstract
The temperature increase in the main body portion of a kinetic energy penetrator flying at sea level with a speed of 1,500 m/s was calculated using an analytical conduction analysis with a convective boundary condition. The penetrator was modeled as a smooth cylinder of uniform diameter and material properties. The results from a previously published computational fluid dynamics simulation were used to provide the convective heat transfer coefficient and the temperature of the gas flowing over the surface of the penetrator. A separation of variables solution was used for the parabolic time-dependent conduction equation. The derived solution along with material properties for tungsten and depleted uranium were used to obtain the temperature increase profile through the radius of the penetrator as a function of flight time Both materials showed significant heating within 3 5 of flight. The tungsten penetrator exhibited nearly uniform heating across the radius, whereas heating of the depleted uranium penetrator was confined to the outermost region of the cylinder due to its low coefficient of thermal conductivity.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA394983
Entities
People
- Todd W. Bjerke
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory