Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Countermeasures and Neutralization 

The Engineering Dynamics Department and the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division of Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) conduct fundamental and applied research to investigate the effects of various weapon concepts to neutralize WMD chemical and biological agents. This research includes laboratory analyses (up to surety and biolevel 4 if required) and field testing of weapons concepts using simulants. Several unique test facilities have been designed, fabricated and utilized to accurately measure the effectiveness of different concepts. Analyses include environmental measurements of pressure and temperature (at very high rates) and bioassay of confined and vented effluent. Arena and range tests have been conducted with a wide variety of explosive, fragmenting, and high-temperature weapon concepts to evaluate agent release and collateral effects.

Laboratory assessment of bio-agent kill mechanism

Capabilities

• High explosives testing
• High-speed digital imaging of impacts up to 100,000,000 frames per second
• Nicolet Multipro© high-speed data acquisition up to 100 MHz
• Test fixture fabrication, machine shops, welding
• Institute ISO-compliant QA
• Computer simulations — impact, explosions, fluid flow, particle motion, temperature fields (CTH, EPIC, LS-DYNA, FLOW 3D, CHEETAH)
• Material identification, bioassay, material preparation
• Extensive chemistry laboratories

Test personnel wearing protective clothing and equipment during experiments involving simulated chemical and biological weapon materials in a small-scale blast test facility

Experience

• US Air Force Agent Defeat Program (5 years)
• US Air Force Weapons Effectiveness Evaluation Program
• US Air Force WMD Agent Release Program
• Thermobaric weapons evaluation program
• WMD sensor evaluation programs

Thermobaric device to be tested in a blast chamber against simulated biological agent

Facilities

• Ballistics ranges with low-speed (<1000 ft/s) to high-speed (>6000 ft/s) gun systems
• High explosives testing ranges
• Fully equipped instrumentation trailers (one mobile)
• Highly instrumented blast chambers (up to 750 ft3 in volume)
• Chemistry bioassay laboratories
• Mass spectrometers
• Malvern and Doppler laser-based particle sizing instrumentation

High-speed photographs of Agent Defeat weapon field evaluation

This flyer was published in April 2009. For more information about Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) countermeasures and neutralization, contact Scott A. Mullin, (210) 522-2340 or Donald J. Grosch, (210) 522-3176, Mechanical Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510.

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