Hypersonic and Unsteady Flow Science Issues for Explosively Formed Penetrators

Abstract

The technology of hypersonic projectiles is becoming mature from a metal physics perspective but there are still unsolved challenges relating to flight characteristics and aero dynamic stability. These projectiles deform under explosive loads and accelerate to hypersonic speeds in 2x10-6 seconds. In addition, these projectiles operate at sea-level conditions, a high-speed flight regime not commonly studied. The objective of this effort is to study the aerodynamics characteristics of deformable projectiles flying at hypersonic speeds and sea-level conditions. Because aerodynamic stability is critical for proper performance it is important to know what shapes should be avoided and which ones are acceptable. Since this was a short one-year IDP task the effort only focused on static body geometries, no deformable body calculations were attempted.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA453699

Entities

People

  • Ben Case
  • James R. Wilson
  • Kirk Vanden
  • Steve Ellison

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Boundary Layer
  • Chemistry
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Explosively Formed Penetrators
  • Explosives
  • Flow
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Mechanics
  • Military Research
  • Munitions
  • Projectiles
  • Sea Level
  • Simulations
  • Unsteady Flow

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Explosive Engineering.
  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics