HYPERVELOCITY TELEMETRY SYSTEM

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, NevadaThis paper presents the development of a very high shock telemetry system designed to operate when subjected to acceleration forces of 50,000 g’s in a 120mm gun environment. This system consists of an RF transmitter, a ten channel FM/FM multiplexer, a very rugged power supply, a microstrip patch antenna, and a sensor module. The sensor module contains a tri-axial accelerometer designed to measure the projectile’s low in-flight radial and drag forces and two additional accelerometers to measure the projectile’s high in-bore setback and balloting forces. The sensor suite is located at the center of gravity of the projectile. The patch antenna is incorporated into a radiating structure consisting of a cylindrical metal tube and a plastic cover. To accommodate the antenna in the space available, a microstrip antenna is built on a substrate material that has a dielectric constant of e = 10. Though the cylindrical metal tube, in which the antenna is housed, acts as a cylindrical waveguide operating below its cut-off frequency, its relatively short length allows for adequate power to be radiated for proper system operation. The telemetry system uses standard off-the-shelf telemetry components that were modified and repackaged to withstand the 50,000 "g" environment. All components performed very well in preliminary high "g" (50,000 g’s) tests in a laboratory gun at the Army Research Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC).International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection