In this study, direct focusing of repetitive high-power laser pulses on an arbitrary surface of the vehicle in atmosphere were proposed, in which a blast wave was generated at each pulse and pushes the vehicle on the surface inducing an impulse or thrust vector. A fundamental investigation was conducted on interaction of a focused high-power laser pulse, or blast wave, and the surface with arbitrary shape. Numerical simulation on characteristics of impulse, or thrust, vector generation on the surface was conducted. As the first step of the simulation, for simplicity, some fundamental shapes of the surface, or a vehicle, were assumed, which was circular bodies, and shock-surface interaction was investigated. In addition, an experimental investigation on impulse vector characteristics was also performed. From these results, it was shown that a composition of the impulse vector (or each component) reached about 90% of total impulse at initial 10 μsec. In addition, it was also shown that during this duration, a significantly high-pressure region, induced by the Shockwave, acting on the surface vectors, which induces a primary thrust, was localized at near laser-irradiation spot. From these results, it was concluded that the directions of impulse vectors were primarily determined by the direction of local surface vectors of laser-irradiation spots.
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