Scene Model For Low Observable Infrared Surface Combatants

The next generation of surface combatants will be designed with stringent requirements on efficiency, performance, and survivability. Their development requires innovative technology and capable virtual design tools. ThermoAnalytics proposes to create avirtual prototyping thermal design and infrared scene rendering tool by building on the U.S. Army standard infrared analysis code MuSES (Multi-Service Electro-optic Signature) and commercial thermal analysis tool RadTherm. This innovative tool will supportsignature treatments including water wash systems, exhaust suppression, special coatings and others. The tool will include options to incorporate CFD results for accurate modeling of convection off exterior ship surfaces as well as verified convectioncorrelations tailored for ship modeling. Since plume modeling is an important factor in infrared signature management, ThermoAnalytics will create a streamlined CFD (computational fluid dynamics) interface with its state-of-the-art thermal solver. Toaccurately model the sea surface, a ship wake model will be integrated with Cox-Munk sea surface and structured sky models. Both the target model and sea surface will be rendered using a multi-bounce ray tracer that supports multi-lobe and anisotropic BRDF(bidirectional reflectance distribution function) models. The proposed modeling and simulation tool will be reliable, portable, modular, and physically accurate enough to achieve LO design levels. The proposed engineering tool can be applied to the designof both new vehicles and retrofits of existing vehicles. This innovative tool, tailored to meet the design needs of the Navy's next generation of surface combatants, can be used for vehicle subsystem design, thermal management, propulsion systemdevelopment, infrared and visual signature prediction, and to analyze the cost and signature impacts of design decisions. With its ability to model the whole environment and its impact on vehicle performance through its natural environment models andintegrated CFD, the tool can assess how a vehicle will perform under differing climates, weather, and operating conditions. Properly designed thermal and signature management increases the performance, survivability, and reliability of surface combatants.Additional military benefits include mission planning, threat assessment, and signature reduction due to efficient cooling system design and exhaust suppression. Commercial benefits include the application for automotive applications that must be designedfor increased efficiency and performance under a wide range of real-world environmental conditions. The code can also be applied to other disciplines including electronics cooling, building ventilation, cooling systems, and aircraft.