Hypervelocity Impact Detection, Location, and Assessment for Thermal Protection Systems

A system is proposed that can track the AE and RF energy dispersion that is created when a vehicle is impacted by a projectile at hyper velocity. This same device can measure the time of arrival of the charge wave front at transducers placed throughout the vehicle. Using the known velocity of the energy in the skin of the vehicle, the system can calculate the exact point of impact. Furthermore, characteristics of the energy measured by sensors on the back side of the structure indicate that the system can accurately provide a binary answer of whether the structure has been breached or not. Initial data show that false positives are not likely. However, using a second parameter can help to eliminate false positives and maximize system reliability.