Software System for Advanced Warhead Computer Aided Engineering

Advanced EFP warheads provide a number of modeling challenges that must be handled well to make designs feasible, but are very difficult to accomplish with current state of the art, general purpose solver technology. The principal challenge has recentlymoved to user interface problems as it takes too long for models to be prepared and parameter studies cannot be completed in a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, there are some challenges in EFP, particularly related to fracture and adaptivity,which are not addressed in any current solvers.Previous work has shown that a Java based software system allows us to address many of these difficulties in modeling. For example, a specialized EFP modeling system has been able to reduce user efforts from one week to develop a model to a few minutes.Modifications that required days can be reduced to seconds. The object oriented nature of the system has also allowed us to develop unique solver techniques that speed the simulations over traditional solvers.The major effort in this project will be dedicated to developing fracture algorithms that are suited to the needs of EFP modeling. The particular challenge is to produce an efficient method for separating liners into multiple penetrators. Otheractivities will involve the implementation of advanced automatic optimization procedures.