Back to results
US 12,298,115 B2Granted
Vacuum insulated warhead
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsJohn Rascon, John Regis Leach, Jonathan Charles French, Manuel E. Gonzales
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vacuum insulation layer is wrapped around the length of a warhead to thermally insulate the warhead from fire or aerodynamic heating. The vacuum insulation layer may be integrally formed into the warhead casing or provided as a sleeve that may be permanently or removably positioned about the warhead casing. The vacuum insulation layer is held under vacuum with a pressure of less than 25 Torr and a thermal conductivity Tcond_vac of less than one-third of the thermal conductivity of air Tcond_air.
Claims20
A warhead, comprising:
- an explosive material positioned inside a warhead casing;
- and
- a vacuum insulated casing including inner and outer walls defining an annular void space around a length of the warhead casing and explosive material, wherein the annular void space is held under vacuum with a pressure of less than 25 Torr and a thermal conductivity Tcond_vac of less than one-third of the thermal conductivity of air Tcond_air to form a vacuum insulation layer around the length of the warhead casing and explosive material.
A warhead, comprising:
- an explosive material;
- and
- an integrally formed vacuum insulated metal warhead casing including an inner wall around a length of the explosive that forms a fragmentation layer and an outer wall that defines an annular void space, wherein the annular void space is held under vacuum with a pressure of less than 25 Torr and a thermal conductivity Tcond_vac of less than one-third of the thermal conductivity of air Tcond_air to form a vacuum insulation layer around the length of the warhead casing and explosive material.
A warhead, comprising:
- an explosive material positioned inside a warhead casing;
- and
- a sleeve including inner and outer walls defining an annular void space that slides around the warhead casing and explosive material, wherein the annular void space is held under vacuum with a pressure of less than 25 Torr and a thermal conductivity Tcond_vac of less than one-third of the thermal conductivity of air Tcond_air to form a vacuum insulation layer around a length of the warhead casing and explosive material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.