A Materials Substitution Feasibility Study for an Advanced Integrated Collective Protection System

This report documents the efforts involved in determining the feasibility of substituting aluminum components with organic matrix composites for application to the Advanced integrated Collective Protection System (AICPS) container. The AICPS container houses an air filtration/power generation system capable of providing a temperature-controlled air supply free of nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) contaminants to tactical vehicles and shelters. This study was undertaken to investigate the potential of enhancing the performance of the AICPS container in terms of portability (weight), economy (cost and life cycle), detection, and reliability (noise and electromagnetic impulse/interference protection). The objective was to determine if composite materials would enhance system performance and, if so, to what degree and at what cost. Efforts to maintain original system geometry and performance specifications resulted in two approaches. Results indicate that the application of certain composites to the AICPS container would enhance performance in terms of weight. However, the increased cost of both the raw materials and of manufacturing the structure, subject to the geometric constraints, was considered inefficient. A significant increase in weight savings could be achieved, at a more reasonable cost, if geometric constraints were eliminated to allow for rearranging the distribution and orientation of internal components.