Characteristic study of pyroshock propagation in a structure using a pyroshock simulator

Abstract

Pyroshock is a large mechanical response with a wide frequency range that occurs instantaneously in a structure owing to the detonation of pyrotechnics or explosives. This response can cause critical damage to the surrounding electronics of aerospace systems. Therefore, designing a structure to prevent damage to electronic equipment from pyroshock is necessary. However, the characteristics of pyroshock change depending on the shape of the structure, boundary conditions, and materials; hence, it must be quantitatively analyzed. In this work, a pyroshock simulator was used for the characteristic study of shock propagation in various structures. A typical aerospace structure is a connected structure that uses rivets or bolts to connect two separate structures. Therefore, a study was conducted using numerical analysis and a shock simulator to characterize the pyroshock propagation in these joint structures. First, numerical analysis and experiments were performed by varying the bolt torque to observe the shock propagation characteristics according to the bolt load. Second, to observe the shock propagation characteristics according to the angle of the joint structure, the responses of 90°, 120°, and 180° joint structures were compared. Third, the characteristics of shock propagation through SUS304 and AL 6061-T6 were compared to observe the change in propagation characteristics due to material change. The results of investigation of the shock propagation characteristics in various structures in this study could be used to mitigate electronic equipment malfunctions due to pyroshock and in designing effective shock-attenuating structures.