Illumination Munition Frangible Ogive and Shearable Tail
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional illumination munitions can cause collateral damage due to a heavy deployment container falling to the ground after ignition, and they may not fail safely in blind landing scenarios, potentially leading to unintended energetic events.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a shearable tail unit, a main body with a payload cavity, a fuze, and an explosive train, along with a drogue and main parachute system, where the main parachute is tethered to the payload apparatus, and a frangible ogive element with shearable links to ensure safe failure and controlled descent, reducing collateral damage and preventing unconfined energetic events.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If the illumination payload is housed in a deployment container that is jettisoned after deployment, then the mass is reduced, but the deployed container causes collateral damage at the illumination site
Solution Approach 1:
The deployment container is segmented into two parts: a frangible ogive that remains with the payload and a tail unit that is deliberately detached. The tail unit contains the drogue parachute and is designed to be sheared off at a predetermined location, allowing it to be safely ejected away from the illumination site while the frangible ogive stays with the payload apparatus.
Solution Approach 2:
The harmful component (tail unit with drogue parachute) is extracted from the main payload assembly and designed to be separated and ejected away from the illumination area. The tail unit is tethered by a drogue tether that allows it to be pulled clear of the payload after deployment, removing the source of collateral damage from the illumination zone.
2Reliability
If conventional munitions are used in blind landing scenarios, then they may fail to function, but they can cause unintended energetic events and do not fail safely
Solution Approach 1:
The frangible ogive is designed with predetermined weakness points that allow it to break apart upon impact or malfunction. This beforehand cushioning ensures that if the munition experiences a blind landing or other malfunction, the frangible structure will disintegrate rather than cause an unconfined energetic event, providing a safe failure mode by design.
Solution Approach 2:
The ogive element's material properties are specifically engineered to be frangible, with controlled strength characteristics that allow it to remain intact during normal operation but break apart under abnormal conditions such as impact or pressure changes. This parameter change in material properties enables the safe failure mechanism.
3Reliability
If the tail unit is made frangible with shearable links, then safe failure is enabled, but the structural integrity during normal operation must be maintained
Solution Approach 1:
The tail unit incorporates localized frangible sections with predetermined weakness points at specific locations where shearable links or threaded portions are designed to fail. These local quality changes allow the structure to maintain overall integrity during normal operation while having specific weak points that will fail in a controlled manner to enable safe failure modes when needed.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution allows for controlled ejection and descent of the illumination payload, mitigating collateral damage and ensuring safe failure in blind landings by venting any energetic outputs, thereby reducing the severity of events and preventing payload ejection from the shell.
Implementation Method 1
The primary role of the drogue parachute is to slow the velocity of the ejected payload apparatus
Implementation Method 2
the main parachute, which removes the need for a further energetic device to deploy the main parachute
Implementation Method 3
the explosive train operably connected to said fuze
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to an illumination munition, particularly an illumination payload ejection device housed within a common carrier payload delivery shell, with a frangible safety link.There is provided an illumination munition comprising a shearable tail unit, a main body which comprises a payload cavity for receiving an illumination payload apparatus, a fuze, an ogive element located between said main body and the fuze, and an explosive train operably connected to said fuze, wherein the illumination payload apparatus comprises an illumination composition, a drogue parachute and a main parachute, wherein the main parachute is tethered by a payload tether to the payload apparatus, such that after deployment of said main parachute said payload apparatus descends under the control of said main parachute.