Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) News
Printer Friendly VersionSwRI acquires ultra high-speed imaging system
To advance its diagnostic research capabilities, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has acquired an ultra high-speed imaging system capable of recording transient events at a rate of 100 million frames per second.
San Antonio — November 20, 1995 — Engineers at SwRI recently acquired an ultra high-speed imaging system that records up to six frames at a rate of 100 million frames per second. Virtually all research activities involving high-speed events can be aided with high-speed imaging, but never before to the extent that this camera now offers.
John P. Riegel, manager of ballistics engineering in SwRI's Materials and Structures Division, told guests at the Institute's 48th Annual Trustees Meeting that the new camera is being applied to ballistic events that range from simulated bird impacts with aircraft to evaluations of spacecraft shielding effectiveness against orbital debris. Both cases illustrate the use of ballistics research to help prevent loss of life and millions of dollars in damage.
The recently acquired IMACON 468 ultra high-speed imaging system has exposure durations as short as 10 nanoseconds (10 billionths of a second). To illustrate the incredibly fast speeds involved in some events, Riegel explained that a specially designed shaped charge is used to produce a projectile that moves 36,000 feet (about 7 miles) in one second when launched. This projectile, which borrows on technology used by the military, is used to simulate impacts on spacecraft. With the new camera, the projectile moves only four-thousands of an inch during each exposure, making it possible to obtain critical information about the projectile and its impact with the proposed shielding.
The imaging system was the first of its type in the United
States. It relies on microchannel plate intensifiers and charged coupled devices to create
the images, which are transferred to a PC through fiber optic cables for electronic
processing. The image transfer takes about two seconds, making them available for viewing
immediately following a test.
