Making use of optimization, nondeterministic analysis, and numerical simulation to assess firing set robustness in a fire

Conference · Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:273807

Romero, V J

One emphasis of weapon surety (safety and security) at Sandia National Laboratories is the assessment of fire-related risk to weapon systems. New developments in computing hardware and software make possible the application of a new generation of very powerful analysis tools for surety assessment. This paper illustrates the application of some of these computational tools to assess the robustness of a conceptual firing set design in severe thermal environments. With these assessment tools, systematic interrogation of the parameter space governing the thermal robustness of the firing set has revealed much greater vulnerability than traditional ad hoc techniques had indicated. These newer techniques should be routinely applied in weapon design and assessment to produce more fully characterized and robust systems where weapon surety is paramount. As well as helping expose and quantify vulnerabilities in systems, these tools can be used in design and resource allocation processes to build safer, more reliable, more optimal systems.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 273807
• Report Number(s): SAND-96-2046C; CONF-960869-16; ON: DE96013834; TRN: 96:004710
• Resource Relation: Conference: 14. national system safety conference, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 12-17 Aug 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
99 MATHEMATICS
COMPUTERS
INFORMATION SCIENCE
MANAGEMENT
LAW
MISCELLANEOUS
WEAPONS
SAFETY
FAILURES
PROBABILITY
SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
SECURITY
SIMULATION
VULNERABILITY
FIRES
HEATING
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
STAINLESS STEELS
HEAT TRANSFER
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TIME DEPENDENCE