Manufacturing of Physical Scale Models for Signature Reduction

The suppression of a ship’s magnetic signature is important in the effort to thwart detection by adversarial forces and prevent engagement with magnetic fused weapons. There are two ways to model ship magnetic signatures; through the use of finite element based analytical models and through the use of physical scale models (PSM). Finite element based analytical models are less expensive and have a much faster realization time. However, the analytical models do not accurately portray the magnetic field leading to either under designed or over designed magnetic signal suppression systems. Physical scale modeling processes have been refined to the point that the models can generate a magnetic signal that is within 10% of the signal of the full sized ship. The physical scale models are very expensive; they are handcrafted. The realization time for the physical scale model takes too long resulting in PSM obsolescence before completion. A means to use a low cost manufacturing process and high magnetic permeability materials holds the promise of reducing the cost and realization time for high fidelity PSM. The cost and realization time reductions will be between 35% and 65% the cost and realization time of current physical scale models.