Effect of Componential Camouflage on Aircraft's IR Multiband Susceptibility

Aircraft's infrared (IR) signature modeling considering thermal-flow characteristics and emissivity control for IR camouflage have been recently studied. However, there are few studies trying to analyze the camouflage effect by applying IR camouflage material to the aircraft surface based on the surface temperature distributions or to find suitable surfaces for effective camouflage. In this study, we describe the effect of componential signature reduction on aircraft's susceptibility to IR-guided missiles considering multiband detection. We analyzed the thermal-fluid characteristics of aircraft using coupled simulations of computational fluid dynamics with a conduction and radiation solver. We calculated IR signature levels from the surface temperature distribution in the mid-wavelength (3–5 μm) and long-wavelength (8–12 μm) bands for the multiband susceptibility analysis. Based on the surface temperature distribution and IR signature level, the aircraft surface was classified according to surface temperature and heating cause. Consequently, we determined that the zone highly heated by the external flow or plume has the dominant impact on the IR signature. We expect that this study will be helpful for advancing and realizing IR camouflage in actual flight conditions.