Sensitivity Analysis of Ballistics Performance with Respect to Statistical Design Parameters

Abstract

To investigate the effect of design parameters with statistical characteristics on ballistics performance, sensitivity analysis of the flight range objective with respect to relevant parameters was conducted to demonstrate it. Statistical parameters were modeled using an iterative method in order to determine descriptive statistics for further sampling. Simulation of flight range based on a dynamics model was then carried out. Finally, sensitivity derivatives from the baseline design scheme were calculated to locate the most sensitive parameters which can be controlled specially for better performance. Results show that by sensitivity analysis, thrust parameters affect the flight range objective obviously while others not, which provides suggestions about whether some parameters should be limited in a range or not.