Ordered Packing and Efficient Aerosolization of Anisotropic Particles

Physical Sciences, Inc. (PSI) has incorporated a gas generating chemistry (GGC) with obscurant particles to enhance dissemination. Particles treated with GGC yielded an obscurant cloud 1.7 times larger than the same mass of untreated samples during pyrotechnic burster field tests. Several GGC were successfully demonstrated during the Phase I program. They differ in their gas generation volume and their sensitivity to temperature and shock. The GGC creates microturbulence via deflagration/decomposition during obscurant dissemination and results in a high single particle separation efficiency. The GGC will be developed for use with pneumatic obscurant particle dissemination during the proposed Phase II program. PSI will demonstrate the GGC for pneumatically disseminated carbon fiber, TiO2 particle and brass flake obscurants. We will also optimize a GGC for use with pyrotechnic TiO2 M106 visible obscurant grenades. We have demonstrated alignment processes for fiber obscurants and will further develop and test these approaches during the Phase I Option using brass flake obscurants. During the course of the Phase II program PSI will provide a series of obscurants for pneumatic and pyrotechnic dissemination at ECBC and Capco to demonstrate the enhanced extinction provided by the PSI GGC and alignment methods.