Aerodynamic Drag and Lift Characteristics for Irregularly-Shaped Intercept Fragments

The focus of this SBIR project for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is the aftermath of a successful missile intercept, where the resulting fragments fall toward land or sea. The Phase I effort was successful in the development of tools and processes to predict the lift and drag of irregularly shaped intercept fragments. During Phase II, AVID proposes work in several areas to meet the MDA’s objectives. Fragment lift and drag predictions will be performed using the methodology developed in Phase I, and refined in the current effort. The focus of the technical development lies in the modification and enhancement of Vorview to provide more accurate results over a wider range of flight states. The finalization of a method to correlate aerodynamic characteristics with geometric properties will establish a key link between KIDD predictions and aerodynamic modeling. In addition, planned work in 3D digital scanning and wind tunnel testing will provide very useful results for MDA. This effort includes the creation of a digitized fragment database that will have great utility for projects beyond the scope of the current project. Two Phase II options are proposed for additional 3D scanning of fragments and additional wind tunnel testing and method validation.