The Fiberoptle Guided Missile (FOG-M)

: In support of the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) was tasked to develop and test innovative techniques, materials, and equipment for expedient and sustainment repairs of small bomb craters in airfield pavements. This airfield damage repair (ADR) investigation consisted of laboratory testing of selected crater fill and capping materials, as well as full-scale field testing of small crater repairs to evaluate field mixing methods, installation procedures, and repair performance. After 3 hr of cure, each crater was trafficked under controlled traffic conditions to determine the ability of the repairs to support the gross load of an F-15E aircraft. Results of the traffic tests identified multiple repair materials that can be used for expedient and sustainment repairs of concrete airfield pavements. Both the laboratory and full-scale traffic tests were conducted at the ERDC in Vicksburg, MS, from February to November 2006. Experimental results were used to develop ADR criteria for rapidly repairing small craters.

The original California Bearing Ratio (CBR) procedure was developed in the 1940s for the design of flexible pavements. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers modified this equation in the 1950s for heavy aircraft with multiple wheel gears using a thickness adjustment (α) factor. This “CBR-Alpha” performance model is based on a Boussinesq theory of stress distribution and employs an equivalent single wheel load computation. It has gained international recognition since its implementation in the Aircraft Classification Number computation by the International Civil Aviation Organization in 1983. In recent years, however, criticisms regarding the CBR-Alpha procedure’s inability to accurately predict performance for heavier modern aircraft has led efforts towards its improvement. In the late 2000s, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) conducted a testing program using the Heavy Vehicle Simulator-Aircraft (HVS-A), where the test data was used for the validation of an improved mechanistic-empirical design procedure. A single wheel gear with high tire pressure and single and dual wheel gears with low tire pressures were programmed into the HVS-A to simulate F-15 and C-17 aircraft traffic, respectively. The HVS-A test data, along with earlier test data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and ERDC, were used in the development of the “CBR-Beta” procedure. The resulting “CBR-Beta” procedure eliminates the need for the α-factor computation by using Frohlich’s equation. This presentation shows the results of the HVS-A testing program and the reformulation of the CBR procedure, highlighting the contribution of accelerated testing in this effort.

Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU) wall construction is prevalent throughout the United States and the world. While masonry provides adequate strength for conventional design loads, in many circumstances it is inadequate for meeting the minimum standards mandated for blast protection of new and renovated government construction. Protection of military and civilian occupants of masonry structures has received long needed research, due to increased terrorist threat and government mandates for new construction and renovation of federal buildings. The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has been involved in blast resistant structures r esearch for decades. In the last ten years analytic approaches developed for hardened structures were adapted to terrorist bombings of conventional construction. In addition, simplified response surface based methods, developed to access damage from accidental explosions, were employed to develop models for terrorist bomb attack. These pressure -impulse (P-I) methods were derived from limited data sets and single -degree-of-freedom analytic models. Retrofits to mitigate blast hazard to occupants of masonr y structures have been the focus of recent ERDC research. This research resulted in economical retrofits to reduce debris hazard for occupants rather than to blast -harden the masonry structures. This paper summarizes the development and use of simplified models for the analysis and design of CMU walls and the experimental programs used for model validation.

A novel concept for dynamic IR scene projection using IR diode lasers has been developed. This technology offers significant cost and performance advantages over other currently available projector technologies. Performance advantages include high dynamic range, multiple wavebands, and high frame rates. A projector system which utilizes a 16-element linear array has been developed and integrated into the millimeter wave/infrared (MMW/IR) hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) facility at the US Army Missile Command's (USAMICOM's) Research, Development, and Engineering Center (RDEC). This projector has demonstrated dynamic range in excess of 105, apparent temperatures greater than 2500 degree(s)C, and nanosecond response times. Performance characteristics for this projector system are presented in the paper. Designs for projectors to test other IR sensor configurations, including FPAs, have been developed and are presented as well. The FPA design consists of a linear array of diode lasers scanned by a polygon mirror. This low-cost projector offers high resolution, high contrast 2-D scenes at up to 10 KHz frame rates. Simulation of active IR countermeasures is another promising application of diode laser projector systems. The diode laser is capable of simulating flares or virtually any IR jammer waveform.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Technology base investments by the US Army will exploit the wealth of emerging commercial telecommunications services, as an operational supplement to classical tactical communications systems. This paper presents a series of technology components that collectively form the basis for the Army's Battlefield Information Transmission System and will provide the underlying seamless, global, "ubiquitous" transmission system for the Force XXI warfighter. The technical and system architectures of the 21st century will evolve through a gradual process of development, acquisition, and experimentation. This process, by definition, is a combined effort relying on the Army Materiel Command (AMC) Research, Development and Engineering Center (RDECs) working with the TRADOC battlelabs. The battlelabs, through a formal series of Advanced Warfighting Experiments (AWEs), play a crucial role in testing and adapting the technology produced by the AMC RDECs and commercial providers. Commercial technology is also directly exploited in TRADOC user environments as part of the Army's ACT II program.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The Close-In Detector (CID) is the vehicle-mounted multi-sensor anti-tank landmine detection technology for the Army CECOM Night Vision Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) Mine Hunter-Killer (MH/K) Program. The CID includes two down-looking sensor arrays: a 20-antenna ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and a 16-coil metal detector (MD). These arrays span 3-meters in front of a high mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV). The CID also includes a roof-mounted, forward looking infrared (FLIR) camera that images a trapezoidal area of the road ahead of the vehicle. Signals from each of the three sensors are processed separately to detect and localize objects of interest. Features of candidate objects are integrated in a processor that uses them to discriminates between anti-tank (AT) mines and clutter and produces a list of suspected mine locations which are passed to the neutralization subsystem of MH/K. This paper reviews the current design and performance of the CID based on field test results on dirt and gravel mine test lanes. Improvements in CID performance for probability of detection, false alarm rate, target positional accuracy and system rate of advance over the past year and a half that meet most of the program goals are described. Sensor performances are compared, and the effectiveness of six different sensor fusion approaches are measured and compared.

: The U.S. Army Defense Ammunition Center and School (USADACS) was requested by the U.S. Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command (AMCCOM) to conduct a series of transportability tests to develop/evaluate tiedown procedures for the M467 container(s) and for the M613 container(s) on the M998 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV). Using web strap tiedown assemblies, test loads with either one or two of the two type containers, successfully completed the USADACS five step road hazard course. An approved securement procedure was established for movement of the M467 and M613 containers on the HMMWV. (KT)

Levees are a fundamental part of many flood-damage reduction projects that protect life and property and their condition and performance in emergency flooding situations is of utmost importance. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is conducting research related to levee condition evaluation and assessment. A primary objective of this research is to develop the capability to obtain information about levee conditions and rapidly convey the data to decision-makers during emergency operations, particularly in cases where levee failure is possible. A field study was conducted along a 9-km stretch of the landside levee toe of the Feather River south of Marysville, CA. The purpose of the investigation was to determine the potential of rapidly assessing levee foundations using a variety of geophysical instruments: a Geophex GEM-2 and Geonics EM31 and EM34 electromagnetic (EM) induction tools, a Geometrics OhmMapper capacitively coupled and a Scintrex SARIS direct-current (dc) resistivity system. Electrically non-conductive sleds were built to tow the EM instruments behind a vehicle. The capacitively coupled resistivity system and a combination of the EM instruments provided useful and definitive information for assessing foundation conditions.

This Dredging Operations Technical Support (DOTS) Program technical note presents the results of a study undertaken by the Navigation Branch, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL), at the request from the Louisville District (LRL) to examine an incident involving a single vessel and structure in a high-water condition. The vessel-position data used in this request were broadcast from an onboard Automatic Identification System (AIS) transceiver and received by US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)–owned Lock Operations Management Application (LOMA) tower sites located along the Ohio River.

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) was tasked by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to evaluate the capability of emerging nondestructive testing equipment to accurately estimate the thickness of pavement surfaces without requiring large footprint equipment or pavement repairs. The ERDC research team conducted an evaluation of eleven nondestructive technologies, including eight ground penetrating radar devices and three different seismic technologies, on nineteen concrete test locations with varying pavement thicknesses. For each of the different pavement types, a single core was extracted to provide calibration points. The involved vendors and researchers estimated initial thickness, and upon receiving the calibration core thicknesses, final thickness estimates were computed. The accuracy of each technology was quantified by calculating the absolute difference between the actual core measurement and the estimated measurement. This paper describes the eleven different technologies, their performance on the test locations, and comparisons in terms of accuracy and implementation difficulty.

This paper describes how the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) initiated a new military research effort in 2001 known as the Joint Rapid Airfield Construction (JRAC) program. The JRAC program involves over twenty principal researchers from three ERDC laboratories, over thirty integrated research projects, scheduled research funds in excess of 20 million dollars, and two major field demonstrations during the seven-year research plan. The primary objective of this research program is to develop methodologies and materials for rapidly upgrading existing or constructing new contingency airfields with the lowest logistical footprint possible. The JRAC program is designed to meet this objective by; (1) integrating advanced terrain analysis technologies and performance prediction modeling to optimize contingency airfield site selection; (2) utilizing emerging commercial soil stabilization technologies to rapidly provide contingency airfield surfaces capable of sustaining mission operations; and (3) exploiting new construction technologies to enhance airfield construction productivity. It provides summaries of the background, current research efforts, and projected goals of the JRAC program. Discussions of spin-off' technologies useful to civil airports and other construction industries are also presented. Since the JRAC program seeks to exploit new and emerging technologies within the private sector, it is hoped that this paper will generate critical exchanges of information and perhaps foster important industry and government partnerships in the near future.

The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is working collaboratively with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), BGS ITandE GmbH, and the French Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (Shom) to extend the spectral wave modeling with WAVEWATCH III (WW3) (WW3DG 2019) from global and basin scales (e.g., ERDC Wave Information Studies hindcasting and NOAA forecasting) to local, nearshore processes into the surf zone. WW3 is undergoing rapid community development (Alves, et al. 2023). The unstructured, implicit solution option in WW3 provide flexibility and efficiency to resolve complex shorelines and high- gradient wave zones to drive nearshore circulation, wave setup, and wave-driven sediment transport with multi- scale spatial coverage over approximately three orders of magnitude. A hybrid approach to parallelization uses spectral partitioning for advection in geographical space and domain decomposition for spectral advection and the source term integration. The advection part of wave action equation is integrated fully implicitly, and a new convergent action limiter derived from Komen et al. (1994) and Hersbach and Janssen (1999) is applied. This paper describes model enhancements and validation.

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) has conducted research on ultra-high performance concretes (UHPCs) since the late 1980 s. The primary focus has been on military and civil works infrastructure applications. The research included the development of a UHPC material called Cor-Tuf Baseline, which includes several derivatives including a patented material. This paper presents the ERDC's historical experience with UHPCs, including constituent materials, laboratory-scale production, and heat treatment, typical microstructure, and pathways for scaling up production. Case studies are also presented on ongoing research focused on the use of fiber-reinforced UHPCs for repair and retrofit of armor plate systems in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) inland navigation civil works infrastructure and ongoing long-term field durability testing at the Treat Island Natural Weathering Station near Eastport, ME.

In an effort to identify alternative and beneficial use placement strategies for dredged sediments from the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW), the US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District (SAS), and the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) performed a series of physical property tests of 34 core borings from the SAS AIWW. Physical property testing found that 14 of the borings were non-cohesive sandy materials that may be suitable for potential beach renourishment or berm construction. The remaining 20 borings had mud contents sufficient enough to result in cohesive behavior. A subset of six of these materials from across the geographic region were further evaluated to characterize their erosion behavior. Following a self-weight consolidation period of 30 days, erosion testing showed that the tested cohesive sediments had critical shear stress values that ranged from 1.7 Pa to 2.9 Pa, suggesting that these sediments would likely be resistant to erosion in most wetland environments after placement. Additionally, the cohesive sediments were found to produce gravel-sized mud clasts. These clasts could account for 20% or more of the eroded mass and significantly reduce the amount of silts and clays incorporated in suspended plumes during and immediately following placement.

In an effort to identify alternative and beneficial use placement strategies for dredged sediments from the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AIWW), the US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District (SAS), and the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) performed a series of physical property tests of 34 core borings from the SAS AIWW. Physical property testing found that 14 of the borings were non-cohesive sandy materials that may be suitable for potential beach renourishment or berm construction. The remaining 20 borings had mud contents sufficient enough to result in cohesive behavior. A subset of six of these materials from across the geographic region were further evaluated to characterize their erosion behavior. Following a self-weight consolidation period of 30 days, erosion testing showed that the tested cohesive sediments had critical shear stress values that ranged from 1.7 Pa to 2.9 Pa, suggesting that these sediments would likely be resistant to erosion in most wetland environments after placement. Additionally, the cohesive sediments were found to produce gravel-sized mud clasts. These clasts could account for 20% or more of the eroded mass and significantly reduce the amount of silts and clays incorporated in suspended plumes during and immediately following placement.