Aerodynamic Characteristics of Irregularly Shaped Intercept Fragments

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) would like to improve debris trajectory predictions using an improved and comprehensive database of lift and drag characteristics for fragments that are the result of missile engagements. Analytical solutions have been generally limited by available solutions for common shapes that don’t represent the complex and irregular debris fragments. Direct measurements of characteristics such as drag and ballistic missile coefficient have been limited to low-speed flow regimes. Techsburg, Inc. proposes to address MDA's requirements by modifying our existing in-house supersonic wind tunnel facility to enable measuring lift and drag characteristics of missile intercept fragments at speeds ranging from subsonic to Mach 3. Techsburg anticipates that the result of the Phase II effort will be an extensive database of intercept fragment lift and drag characteristics. The database may then be used to develop correlations of aerodynamic properties as a function of flow and fragment geometry parameters. Such correlations will improve the accuracy of existing impact debris trajectory prediction codes.