As a result of military testing and training around the United States, the property potentially containing military weapons in underwater environments exceeds 10 million acres. The weapons, called munitions, are difficult to locate, can move suddenly, and are a danger to marine life and the public. To better understand their motion, this project is designing a fully instrumented model munition that will be deployed in the nearshore to model and record its response to the dynamic environment.
As mentioned above, munitions are difficult to locate, can move suddenly, and are a danger to marine life and the public. Before safe and cost-effective munition recovery efforts can be developed, a better understanding of their mobility in underwater environments is needed. Specifically, this research looks to resolve the role of dynamic pressure gradients surrounding the munition that can impact its position or orientation.
To do so, a pressure-mapped model munition( PMM) has been designed, fabricated, and tested in laboratory and field settings. The PMM is an untethered instrument, containing all electronics necessary to retrieve, time, and store data. The PMM is capable of detecting and measuring surface pressure gradients and orientation and positional changes and uses an acoustic tracker for retrieval purposes after a deployment.
Faculty Advisory: Diane Foster
For more information:
Angela Sarni, ama355@wildcats.unh.edu
Stephanie Gilooly, sem748@wildcats.unh.edu
