Reliability Estimates for Flawed Mortar Projectile Bodies

Abstract

The Army routinely screens mortar projectiles for defects in safety-critical parts. In 2003, several lots of mortar projectiles had a relatively high defect rate, 0.24%. Before releasing the projectiles, the Army reevaluated the chance of a safety-critical failure. Limit state functions and Monte Carlo simulations were used to estimate reliability. Measured distributions of wall thickness, defect rate, material strength, and applied loads were used with calculated stresses to estimate the probability of failure. The results predicted less than one failure in one million firings. As of 2008, the mortar projectiles have been used without any safety-critical incident.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA528288

Entities

People

  • D. Carlucci
  • J.a. Cordes
  • James P. Thomas
  • R.s. Wong

Organizations

  • United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computational Science
  • Data Science
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Geometry
  • Information Science
  • Materials
  • Mechanics
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Mortar Ammunition
  • Probability
  • Projectiles
  • Reliability
  • Reliability Engineering
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Statistical Distributions
  • Tensile Strength
  • Thickness

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Munitions and Ordnance Engineering
  • Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.