Exhaust Impingement Effects Predictive Capability for Future Combat Systems (FCS) and the 21st Century Truck

"The survivability of Army vehicles depends upon proper thermal management. The control of exhaust gases is critical to thermal management, particularly for lightweight vehicles, such as Future Combat Systems (FCS), whose survivability relies on signaturecontrol. If not managed skillfully, exhaust gases can be a large signature cue - leading to the detection and targeting of assets. Equally disastrous to vehicle survivability is the impingement of exhaust on vehicle parts and on surrounding terrain.Materials exposed to exhaust gas impingement will heat up, thus becoming signature cues. Exhaust impingement is a safety hazard for military/commercial applications, affecting both crew well-being and vehicle integrity. Another safety concern is the dangerresulting from an exhaust system leak. A predictive tool, suited for design and rapid prototyping applications, is needed to address these concerns. Currently, no such tool exists. ThermoAnalytics proposes to build upon the RadTherm thermal analysis code,currently in use at Ford, GM, and DaimlerChrysler, and part of the Army's Multi Services Electro-optics Signature (MuSES) suite, to create an exhaust impingement prediction tool. The tool would both yield feedback during vehicle design as well as producerealistic, detailed synthetic natural environments (SNE) for detection and sensor simulation of prototype vehicle designs. 1. Signature management - Exhaust impingement on vehicle parts and