Hydrodynamic Ram Simulator

Abstract : The objective of this work was to develop a low-cost method of evaluating hydrodynamic ram and blast effects on aircraft materials that is effective for both joint and flat plate testing and able to assess failure properties of both types of structures. The approach was to revise the design of the RamGun test device to avoid previously discovered shortfalls. This was to be done as follows: 1.)Larger test section to avoid boundary effects,2.) Elimination of internal reflections that confound data, 3.)Tuned pressure pulses that map to specific threats, 4.)Design supported by LSDYNA, 5.)Dem-val tests to verify final design. The effort was piggy-backed onto a Phase II SBIR. The focus of this report is the design support being performed by LSDYNA simulations in support of the SBIR tasks.