Development of High-Fidelity Modeling Tools to Predict Radiative Signatures from Hypervelocity Impact Flash Events

In the proposed Phase II Enhancement, Prism Computational Sciences, Corvid Technologies, and Bodkin Design and Engineering will perform experimental and simulation studies of the optical emission from impact flash events. This collaboration builds on the SBIR Phase II efforts of the Prism-Corvid team to apply high-fidelity simulation tools to study impact flash line emission from laboratory gas-gun experiments and to build the capability to predict the emission from full-scale BMDS intercepts. It also leverages Bodkin"s Multiband Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer (MSHS) technology, developed under SBIR Phase II funding from MDA. The MSHS is a new type of Fourier transform spectrometer that spans the visible region of the spectrum, and which can be used in field data collection with standard high speed cameras. The goals of this project are to: (1) develop an improved database of full-scale intercept impact flash emissions by benchmarking our simulation tools against new emission data obtained both in gas-gun tests performed at the Arnold Engineering and Development Center (AEDC) and the upcoming FTG-07 flight test; and (2) demonstrate the ability of the MSHS technology to record high-resolution optical spectra in AEDC impact flash tests.