Computer Model for Optimum Aircraft Location of Chaff Dispensers

The optimum aircraft location for the placement of chaff (expendables) dispensers could be of significant importance for the safety of an aircraft under attack by hostile forces. This optimum location depends on the ambient flow field aroundthe aircraft, and the specific characteristics of the chaff and the chaff dispensers. This proposal assembles an existing fast panel analysis (to conform the flow field to the aircraft body shape), existing flow field models for fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters (to predict the detailed wake structure off the trailing edge of the wing and rotor blades), and an existing Lagrangian particle solver (to track the released chaff in the directions dictated by the pyrotechnics), all wrapped into an existing user-friendly user interface developed for the US Air Force under a previous SBIR contract. All of these existing, state-of-the-art codes have been developed by Continuum Dynamics, Inc. and need only be assembled and extended in the Phase I effort. The Phase I effort will result in an operational, proof-of-concept Microsoft (R) Windows (TM) PC-based computer model. The Phase II effort wll build in further details, greatly expand the aircraft database, explore critical parameters, and integrate the omputer model into the existing MARCS simulation.