Tactical Ballistic Projectile Acoustic Signature Modeling

This proposal will lead to the development of a comprehensive aero-acoustic toolkit for predicting the acoustic signatures of tactical projectiles. Development will focus on identification of noise generation mechanisms and their spectral content, propagation of the noise through non-uniform media, accounting for effects of atmospheric attenuation and dispersion as well as prediction of the far-field signatures. The primary focus is upon characterization of the shock structure associated with the projectiles and prediction of the N-wave signature at the ground, while accounting for effects of geometric effects such as fins and control surfaces, as well as thermal stratification and wind effects in the atmosphere. Secondary sources such as wake noise, shock-boundary layer interaction, as well as amplification of flow instabilities coupling with shock structures will also be investigated for noise predictions beyond boom cut-off locations. The innovation proposed here will result in an aeroacoustics simulation and prediction capability that will cover the entire spectrum of linear and non-linear acoustics in analyzing sound generation and propagation for a wide range of applications. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based numerical testbed will also be demonstrated where field-deployable systems for detection, identification and tracking of ballistic projectiles can be tested and evaluated.