Maneuvering Target Phenomenology

Propulsion systems may perform a variety of maneuvers during the ascent phase of flight that can impact the performance of an interceptor or other parts of an MDA system designed to perform threat detection, discrimination, and tracking. Our Phase I effort focuses on building on extending existing plume signature software. A main technical objective is to establish the various components and appropriate methodology in order to develop a high-fidelity transient plume signature modeling/simulation tool to properly model the signature emissions from these propulsion systems at high altitudes. The code architecture must consider the complexities in modeling transient, geometric, and chemical aspects of plume-atmosphere and plume-plume interactions. Focus will be on the integration of existing plume CFD and DSMC codes and the necessary chemistry and radiation modeling. Since the plume radiative emissions necessarily depend on the propulsion system of interest, and particularly the propellants used, a chemical kinetics and thermodynamic database for important chemical reaction mechanisms for plume-plume and plume-atmospheric species will benefit this program. While the Phase I focuses on the various components of a computation tool, development during the Phase II will lead to a model applicable for predicting signature of low and high-thrust systems at all altitudes.