Hypersonic and Unsteady Flow Science Issues for Explosively Formed Penetrator Warheads

摘要

The technology of hypersonic projectiles is becoming mature from a metal physics perspective but there are still unsolved challenges relating to flight characteristics and aerodynamic 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.