Engineering Dynamics

Energetic systems and materials and their interaction remain an important area of research at the Institute. SwRI engineers and scientists use a wide range of experiments as well as large-scale numerical simulations to study the response of materials and structures that have been subjected to extreme loads and harsh environments. Military and civilian applications include countermeasure systems, body armor, vulnerability studies, and the effects of high-explosive projectiles on aircraft fuel tanks. The tools and capabilities developed for military applications are being applied to the civilian sector in such areas as high-performance computing and semiconductor wafer polishing.

The interior dynamics of a bullet's launch and subsequent impact are extremely violent. Precision alignment, as exemplified by the laser beam and highly transient diagnostic instrumentation, is required to allow SwRI engineers to conduct meaningful research.

As part of an internal research program, Institute engineers have developed a threat detection and countermeasure system. The system, known as the Instantaneous Personnel Protection System™, has the potential to defeat small arms fire from distances as short as 30 feet. The system consists of a low-power, Doppler radar unit that detects a bullet after it has been fired from a weapon. The radar, sensing the threat, sends a signal to a countermeasure that is then deployed to intercept the bullet before it hits its intended target. Several firms have expressed interest in licensing the technology from SwRI.

Under contract to the Munitions Directorate of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, Institute engineers have developed a new, experimental methodology to measure dynamic fracture toughness of metal alloys. Concurrently, a computational fracture mechanics algorithm has been developed and implemented into a computer simulation program. The computer code will use the processed laboratory data to assess fracture resistance of earth-penetrating bombs.

The Institute leads a team of researchers investigating concepts for substantially lighter body armor to protect U.S. soldiers from rifle-fired, armor-piercing bullets. The first phase of this effort, funded by DARPA and managed by the U.S. Army Natick Research, Development, and Engineering Center, focused on experiments and analyses to provide a fundamental understanding of operative mechanisms to defeat the projectile. In this high-speed image taken with SwRI's IMACON camera, a bullet strikes an aluminum-backed ceramic target.

Institute engineers are assisting the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in investigating the effects of weapons of mass destruction and counterterrorism. The vulnerability of light civilian construction -- walls of brick, wood stud, drywall, and concrete block -- was determined by conducting full-scale tests using Mk-82 500-pound bombs at the Institute's remote test range. Additionally, to investigate the vulnerability of the equipment used to produce weapons of mass destruction, fragment impact and blast tests of full-scale and sub-scale liquid-filled containers were performed. These tests provided valuable information on the relationship between hydrodynamic ram phenomena -- the complex fluid-structure interaction between high explosives and a fluid-filled container -- and the incapacitation of manufacturing capabilities.

Research into high-performance computing methods is being funded by a combination of internal and external sources. In the NASA Metacomputing Project, new tools and techniques are being developed for parallel computing on clusters of workstations connected by high-speed networks. Two demonstration applications are being pursued: one focuses on simulating the dynamics of the Earth's upper atmosphere (altitudes above 50 km), the other on simulating weapon-target interaction in multiple-room structures.

In a project funded by the National Science Foundation, SwRI scientists will develop and apply parallel-computing methods, based on wide area networks, to the problem of subsurface transport of chemical species. This project is focused on developing a computational tool to support remediation efforts to reclaim contaminated groundwater in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

SwRI staff members have developed and validated models to simulate the erosion of microelectronics chip surfaces during a new and important manufacturing process known as chemical-mechanical polishing. The software simulator accelerates the development of the process for new chips and is also instrumental in developing performance standards and improvements.

The Institute has continued to support the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in developing models and tools for the response of hard and soft targets to attack with new, smaller, and more accurate conventional weapons. To assess the vulnerability of buried command posts and communication centers, scaled tests of heavily reinforced concrete slabs subjected to heavy-cased weapons were performed and analytical models were developed from the data. The residual strength of these slabs was then measured to help assess post-attack functionality of the facilities.

1998 Annual Report SwRI Home