Its primary mission is predicting how particular munitions will react to hostile threats during an attack. These threats include being hit by a variety of enemy munitions, exposure to fire, and the reaction of co- located items. The team's research is also useful for other applications such as the development and selection of munition propellants, armor development, vehicle design and construction of ammunition storage compartments. However, it's the area of survivability, where predicting munition response accurately can save the lives of soldiers, that is the most detailed and exacting. Dr. Patrick Baker, a mechanical engineer with the team, points out that predicting munition response starts with looking at the response of a single grain propellent and how that behavior interacts with the other grains that make up the propellent.
Gibbons says that their studies always progress from single grain consideration to bulk effects.
He adds that the team is now working on developing computer models of the behavior of individual grains and different shapes of propellants. Both Gibbons and Baker say the team welcomes other customers as well. It costs a lot of money to develop a propellent and then go to full-scale production. If we can tell them early in the process what to do to help survivability, that can save them from going down the wrong road and having to start all over again. Gibbons cites the success of their work in helping to develop survivability systems for the ammunition compartments in the M-1 tank that protect the crew and maintain survivability of the vehicle.