The Impact Physics group solves complex impact problems and has been conducting research and development for impact-resistant systems for government and industrial sponsors since 1965.
We have the most diversified indoor impact research facility in the world. Our 13 gun ranges are capable of propelling objects at velocities ranging from tens of feet per second to over 24,000 feet per second.
We routinely perform testing in the fields of foreign object damage (FOD), light armor design and evaluation, penetration mechanics, hypervelocity impact testing and analysis, and dynamic behavior of materials.
Capabilities
The breadth of topics studied by the UDRI Impact Physics group include:
Terminal Ballistics
- Advanced armor development
- Aircraft component survivability
- Birdstrike testing
- Foreign object damage
- Fragment containment testing
- Lightweight armor
- Low-velocity impact damage
- Military standard testing
- Penetration mechanics
- Penetrator evaluation
- Structural response to impact
Hypervelocity Impact
- Debris cloud formation
- KE penetrators
- Spacecraft shielding
Ballistic Test Design
- Armor and penetrator design
- Flash radiography
- Foreign object simulators
- High speed photography
- Sabot development
High-Strain-Rate Material Behavior
- Constitutive modeling
- Failure criteria
- Hopkinson bar tests
- Material properties characterization
- Shock wave propagation
Impact Shock Testing
- Data recorders
- Electronic components