Engineering Design Challenges for Military and Aerospace Products

Debbie PostSandia National Laboratories

Society of Women Engineers National ConferenceOctober 24, 2013, Baltimore, MD

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration

under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. SAND NO. 2011-XXXXP, Doc ID: 53285371

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Engineering Design Challenges . . .

• Mission constraints– High reliability– High consequence of failure– Security and safety– Weight and volume

• Environmental constraints– Shock and vibration– Temperature– Radiation– Rain, mud, dust, sand, saltwater

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… for Military and Aerospace Products

Submarines

Missiles

Satellites

R&D

My Career with Military Systems

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Can You See Yourself in This Picture?

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Submarines

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Submarines

• What features or capabilities does theNavy need?

• What do you think?

• Write down at least ten things that you think are important

Silent Service Video

Customer Needs for Submarines

• Reliable software• Rugged equipment• Long operational life• Long cruising range• Weapon systems• Crew Safety• Stealth• Etc.

Customer Needs for Submarines

• Reliable software• Rugged equipment• Long operational life• Long cruising range• Weapon systems• Crew Safety• Stealth• Etc.

Challenges for Rugged Design:Fleet Ballistic Missile

Submarines

• Continuous vibration

• Shock• Radiation• Salt water• Confined

environment

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Human Factors for Submarines

• Launch control console

• What is important for the operator?

• What are the worst case conditions under which this equipment would be used?

USS Minnesota Video

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Human Factors for Submarines

• Status-at-a-glance• Tactile / visual feedback• Rugged hardware• Reliable software• Redundancy

• Other considerations: – The operator is very

sophisticated– Hardware & software must

be upgraded periodically

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Trade Offs for SubmarinesStealth vs. Weapon Systems Performance

Depth:Stealth,Protect

Boat

Surface / Shallow:Easier to Launch

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Solution: Launch

Underwater

Trade Offs for SubmarinesStealth vs. Weapon Systems Performance

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Tomahawk Cruise Missile(torpedo rocket aircraft)

YouTubeTomahawk

Missile Flight Testing

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What do you think are the biggest design challenges?

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• Weight & volume• Shock & vibration• Long shelf life• Storage temperatures• Etc.

• Navigation• System

integration• Materials

compatibility• Etc.

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Missiles

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Missiles & Driving Requirements

• “Driving requirements” for a product are those which present the greatest design challenge

• What do you think?

• Talk to your neighbor for 2 minutes and identify several driving requirements for the missile systems shown here

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Missiles & Driving Requirements

• Physical environment• Performance• Weight, volume• Reliability• Cost• Man-Machine Interface• Maintenance• Operational life• Etc.

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Anti-Armor Missiles

YouTube French ERYX

Anti Tank Missile Training

Exercise

Driving requirements: Think about the

UU (Ultimate User)

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Anti-Armor Missiles

• Man-machine interface– Basic user– Arm as late as possible

• Physical environment– Cold & hot

temperatures– Water, dirt, mud, snow– Rough handling

• Weight• Cost

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Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)

What do you think are the most stressing physical environments for design?

Minuteman III Launch Animation

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Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)

• Shock and vibration– launch– missile staging– reentry

• Exoatmospheric flight– radiation– temperature

extremes– temperature shock

• Etc.

Design Example: Flight Test Instrumentation for an ICBM

• Shock• Weight

• Volume• Bandwidth• Power and power and power

• Budget and schedule• Reliability

Submarine Launched

Ballistic Missiles

Design Challenge• limited volume in

submarine (height, width)

• non-aerodynamic shape of nose

Solution: Aerospike• mitigates shock-

wave• functions as

aerodynamic nose cone, without the cone

Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile: 1st Sea Trial of Trident II

• The problem– Water slams into nozzle– Missile out of control

• Lessons to be learned– Unknown unknowns– Test, test, test (the

Hubble Space Telescope syndrome)

YouTubeFirst Submarine Test

D5 Missile

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Satellites

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Defense / Aerospace Product Life Cycle

• Long life (decades)• Maintenance• Upgrades• End of life

• High complexity• High cost• High reliability• High consequence of failure

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Satellites• Long life• Hardware: No upgrade,

maintenance or repair• Software: upgradable?• End of life: de-orbit

• Radiation• Temperature extremes• Power consumption• Few, one-of-a-kind

production

GPS Video

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• Radiation– Rad-hard

electronics– Shielding

• Power– Solar– Radioisotope

thermal generator (Cassini Spacecraft)

• Manufacturing– Few or one-of-a-

kind production

Design & Manufacturing Challenges for Satellites

Radiation Hardened Integrated Circuits

• Sandia National Laboratories’ CMOS7 technology– strategically radiation-

hardened– 3.3 volt, 0.35 micrometer, SOI

(Silicon-on-Insulator) CMOS process

– 24 mask level process with 5 metal layers

– Custom, high reliability ASICs

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Research & Development

R&D for Arms Control

• Monitor high value items

• Report back to IAEA• Self-protect against

tampering• “Trust but verify”

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Storage Monitoring for Treaty Verification

Remote Monitoring

Item Monitoring

Facility Monitoring

Local Monitoring

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Remote Monitoring

Item Monitoring

Facility Monitoring

Local Monitoring

What do you think are the driving requirements for this system of systems?

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Remote Monitoring

Item Monitoring

Facility Monitoring

Local Monitoring

Low false alarm rateSecure communicationsTamper detectionDust, cold, rodents, vibrationCost vs. low volume production

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Remote Monitoring

Item Monitoring

Facility Monitoring

Local Monitoringwireless messaging

encryption

date/time stamp

unique identifier

tamper sensors

fiber optic seal

motion sensors

case tamper switches

tamper resistant housing

gloss coating

compound joints

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R&D for WMD Response

First responders need fast and accurate information

MicroChemLab: Portable Chemistry Lab

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In Conclusion

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Do You See Yourself in This

Picture?

Engineering Design Challenges for Military and Aerospace Products

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Photo & Video Credits• Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. (http://www.ballaerospace.com)• Boeing (http://www.boeing.com)• Cadence (http://www.cadence.com/)• Cogswell Polytechnical College, Online Fire Science Program

(http://www.cogswell.edu/firescience)• Defense Acquisition University (https://dap.dau.mil)• GPS Website of Air Force Space Command (http://www.gps.gov/multimedia/images/)• Lockheed Martin (http://www.lockheedmartin.com)• NASA (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia)• Raytheon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym_KlL1qAUw)• Sandia National Laboratories (http://www.sandia.gov)• Transformers Movie Website (http://www.transformersmovie.com/Dark_Of_The_Moon)• United States Air Force (http://www.af.mil)• United States Army (http://www.army.mil)• United States Navy (http://www.navy.mil)• US Army War College (http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil)