Chemical Factors Associated with Environmentally-Assisted Cracking of Generic Gun Systems.

Abstract

In the last five years, environmentally-assisted cracking (EAC) has resurfaced as a service life-limiting factor for some gun system designs. In these EAC-affected system designs. mechanical loading factors alone do not appear to explain this loss of service life; chemical factors are also implicated. Using standard interior ballistic and nonideal gas-wall thermochemical analyses, the effect of EAC chemical factors is evaluated for three diverse generic gun systems encompassing the spectrum of gun system types. This study indicates that hydrogen-assisted cracking is the type of EAC responsible for such service life limitation. Results show that these hydrogen-producing and embrittling chemical factors include a major effect due to the addition of lubricants, a minor effect due to pressure oscillations, a subtle effect due to gaseous water-wall reactions. another subtle effect due to wall material choice, and nearly no effect due to gaseous acid-wall reactions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADA313687

Entities

People

  • Peter O'hara
  • Samuel Sopok

Organizations

  • United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adiabatic Processes
  • Chemical Kinetics
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Combustion
  • Combustion Products
  • Engineering
  • Hydrogen
  • Lubricants
  • Materials
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Military Research
  • Oscillation
  • Propellants
  • Reaction Mechanisms
  • Solid Propellants
  • Standards
  • Surface Properties

Readers

  • Materials Science (Mechanical Engineering).
  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • ballistics.