Environmental Life Cycle Techniques for New Weapons Acquisition Systems
Abstract
Environmental issues are an integral part of new systems acquisitions, from the simplest product to the more complex systems. This project is a part of the effort to understand the product variables for new systems and the methods for environmental improvement. The first system studied, in this joint US. Swedish project, is a PFHE shell grenade. We have begun by improving the techniques for determining the chemical emissions and energy requirements of the components of the PFHE shell. These components are weighting factors for making trade-offs of alternative materials and chemicals for such munitions. The shell life cycle was subdivided into eight subsystems, five of which are related to manufacturing. Since many munitions are not used in training or war, these manufacturing subsystems were discovered to be of significant importance. Our effort in this reporting period has been to develop the life cycle inventory of several chemicals not currently in the Swedish database. These were, di n-amyl phthalic acid ester, ammonium nitrate, trinitrotoluene, silver azide, and lead azide. The next step is to understand the relative environmental impact of the materials and chemicals architecture of this munition in relation to the overall product life cycle.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA430092
Entities
People
- Michael Overcash
Organizations
- North Carolina State University