large-scale testing

7 Results

HOT SHOT findings could save defense tech developers time and money

August 30, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An early milestone for developing missile technologies is to show they can work in computer-simulations or large-scale field tests that shake and spin components without falling to pieces. “Screws can back out; things can break,” said Greg Tipton, a structural dynamics engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. Similar...

Categories: Science / Technology / Engineering, Space / Astronomy

Topics: HOT SHOT, large-scale testing, sounding rocket, technology maturation, vibration

High-speed experiments improve hypersonic flight predictions

May 2, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When traveling at five times the speed of sound or faster, the tiniest bit of turbulence is more than a bump in the road, said the Sandia National Laboratories aerospace engineer who for the first time characterized the vibrational effect of the pressure field beneath one of...

Categories: Awards, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: hypersonic, large-scale testing, pressure, pressure-sensitive paint, Sandia National Laboratories, turbulence, vibration

Wind tunnel and lasers provide hypersonic proving ground at Sandia National Laboratories

November 7, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s about speed, and Sandia National Laboratories, with a hypersonic wind tunnel and advanced laser diagnostic technology, is in an excellent position to help U.S. defense agencies understand the physics associated with aircraft flying five times the speed of sound. With potential adversaries reporting successes in their...

Categories: Military / Defense, Physics, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: aerosciences, hypersonic, large-scale testing, Sandia, wind tunnel

Steven Beresh and Russell Spillers place a model in the hypersonic wind tunnel

Drop of mock B61-12 is first of new flight tests

April 13, 2017 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — From a distance, the drop of a mock nuclear weapon — containing only non-nuclear components — was a mere puff of dust rising from a dry lake bed at Nevada’s Tonopah Test Range. However, it marked the start of a new series of test flights vital to...

Categories: Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: B61-12, large-scale testing, Life Extension Program, nuclear weapons, Tonopah

Sled track simulates high-speed accident in B61-12 test

October 5, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories has sent a mock B61-12 nuclear weapon speeding down the labs’ 10,000-foot rocket sled track to slam nose-first into a steel and concrete wall in a spectacular test that mimicked a high-speed accident. It allowed engineers …

Categories: Nuclear Weapons

Topics: B61-12, forward ballistics test, large-scale testing, Life Extension Program, sled track

A B61-12 test unit slams into a target at the end of Sandia National Laboratories’ 10,000-foot rocket sled track in a complex forward ballistics test. The test, which mimicked a high-speed accident, allowed engineers to examine safety features inside the weapon.

Sandia completes major overhaul of key nuclear weapons test facilities

May 8, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia National Laboratories recently completed the renovation of five large-scale test facilities that are crucial to ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons systems. The work supports Sandia’s ongoing nuclear stockpile …

Categories: History, Nonproliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: large-scale testing, national laboratories, national labs, nuclear, Sandia

Sandia conducts first impact test in years of B61 nonnuclear components

January 14, 2014 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A ground-penetrating bomb, minus its nuclear components, rammed through a target at the remote Coyote Canyon test range last month in Sandia National Laboratories’ first such rocket-driven impact test in seven years. Engineers said the Sandia componen…

Categories: Nuclear Weapons, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: B61, bomb, large-scale testing, nuclear, nuclear weapons