Calculations supporting hyperveloicty launcher development

Sandia National Laboratories has developed a HyperVelocity Launcher (also referred to as HVL) in which a thin flier plate (nominally 1 mm thick) is launched to velocities in excess of 12 km/s. The length-to-diameter ratio of these launched flier plates varies from 0.02 to 0.06. The launch technique is based upon using structured, time-dependent, high-pressure, high-acceleration pulses to drive the flier plates. Such pulses are achieved by using a graded-density material to impact a stationary flier. A computational and experimental program at Sandia seeks to extend this technique to allow launching thick plates whose length-to-diameter ratio is 10 to 20 times larger than thin plates. Hydrodynamic codes are used to design modifications to the basic impact technique to allow this extension. Two-dimensional effects become more important for launching chunks with this technique. We have controlled and used these effects to successfully launch a chunk-flier, consisting of 0.33 gm of titanium alloy, 0.3 cm thick by 0.6 cm in diameter, to a velocity of 10.2 km/s. This is the largest chunky size ever launched at this velocity from a gas gun configuration. copyright American Institute of Physics