The nosecones of hypersonic projectiles are subject to extreme wear due to thermal erosion during flight. The exact thickness required to ensure survival of the nosecone during flight is unknown, as there are no reliable technologies that do not pierce through the nosecone, while being able to integrate onto the missile and withstand the high g-loading and vibrational environments they would be subject to. Furthermore, measurements based only upon ultrasonic sensors generally require assumptions regarding temperature distribution in the nosecone itself, which is highly variable and extremely nonlinear. The proposed technology would require a small conductive pad sensor on the interior of the nosecone, few driving electronics, and would sense thickness changes in real time as the nosecone ablates during flight
Benefit: The proposed sensor would be added to the interior of hypersonic missiles during test flights and even during deployment. They would significantly increase the knowledge of the ablation dynamics on the surfaces of missile nose cones as there is currently no onboard solution for measuring thickness without assumptions regarding temperature distribution.
Keywords: Missile, Missile, hypersonic, TPS, nosecone, Ablation
