Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: Addressing the Army need for an innovative sensor to accurately measure the detonation pro

Description

Addressing the Army need for an innovative sensor to accurately measure the detonation properties of explosives and propellants, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) developed in Phase I a new Fiber Optic Detonation Sensor (FIODS) system. Based on a novel combination of fiber optic sensors for velocity, pressure, and temperature, the FIODS system consists of fiber optic probes inserted into/attached to the explosive under test, and the remote processing that detects and processes the optical signals continuously at microsecond timescales. In Phase I, POC designed and developed FIODS probes that can safely attach to explosive materials and experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of using fiber optic sensors to measure blast wave parameters. In Phase II, POC will design, fabricate, package, test, and demonstrate a FIODS that can be safely embedded into an energetic material to support measurement of the blast wave parameters. The Phase II testing of FIODS system will include measurements of the detonation wave propagation parameters of explosives at the Redstone Arsenal range administered through the vendor. POC will use the Phase II FIODS system to characterize existing propellants and explosives to demonstrate the ability to obtain accurate and reliable data that can be used to validate theoretical models.