Analytical and Experimental Comparison of the Velocity of a Supersonic Projectile in the Soft Recovery System

Abstract

In order to compare numerical analyses made by Song and Kim needed for predicting gas and water filling with experimental results we conducted an experiment to recover a test projectile (43.7 kg with a 155 mm diameter) at a velocity of 775 m/s in a soft recovery system with a length of 179 m using pressurized gas and filled water. The soft recovery system consisting of a series of pressure tubes had a diaphragm, piston, and water plug for filling the pressurized gas and water. We installed a continuous wave Doppler radar system for velocity measurements of the test projectile travelling in the pressure tubes and pressure transducers for measuring the pressure in the soft recovery system. Continuous wave Doppler radar has the advantage of achieving real-time measurements of the velocity of a test projectile. The velocity-time curve of the test projectile, measured using the continuous wave Doppler radar, and the pressure profile were compared with the numerical analysis results. The experiment results show good agreement with the numerical analysis results based on the one-dimensional Euler equation with an HLL Riemann solver.