Dynamic Response of Composite Gun Tubes Subjected to a Moving Internal Pressure.
Abstract
The dynamic response of a composite gun tube subjected to a moving pressure front is investigated. The flexural wave in the wall of the gun tube is modeled using both closed-form analytic and finite element methods. Results indicate that very high-amplitude and high-frequency strains are induced in the gun tube at the instant and location of projectile passage as the velocity of moving pressure front approaches the fundamental propagation velocity of the flexural wave. The dynamic effects are especially critical on overwrapped composite gun barrels because of the multi-material construction, anisotropy of material properties, potential thermal degradation of the composite materials due to gas propellant, and the design goals inherent in lightweight structure applications. Finally, this study illustrates the importance of dynamics fracture mechanisms in lightweight ballistic engineering applications. These results also illustrate some of the potential shoncomings of the static analysis methodology traditionally used in gun barrel design. (MM)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA300842
Entities
People
- David A. Hopkins
- Jerome T. Tzeng
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory