Heat Transfer Modelling and Simulation of a 120 mm Smoothbore Gun Barrel During Interior Ballistics

Understanding the heat transfer phenomenon during interior ballistics and consequently presenting a realistic model is very important to predict the temperature distribution inside the cannon barrel, which influences the gun wear and the cook-off. The objective of this work is to present a new detailed numerical model for the prediction of thermal behaviour of a cannon barrel by combining PRODAS interior ballistics simulation with COMSOL simulation. In this study, a numerical model has been proposed for the heating behaviour of a 120 mm smoothbore cannon barrel, taking into account the combustion equation of the JA-2 propellant. Temperature dependent thermophysical properties of product gases were used for the calculation of the convective heat transfer coefficient inside the barrel. Projectile position, velocity of the projectile, gas temperature inside the barrel, volume behind the projectile and mass fraction during interior ballistics have been obtained by PRODAS software and used in the numerical model performed by COMSOL multiphysics finite element modelling and simulation software. Temperature simulations show that maximum wall temperature inside the cannon barrel is observed after 3 ms from fire, when maximum value of the convective heat transfer coefficient inside the barrel is observed. The results reveal that the convective heat transfer coefficient of burned gases inside the gun has major effect than the burned gas temperature on the heat transfer phenomenon.

Analysis of chosen numerical methods for the application in high order interior ballistics simulations

Considering constant development of the interior ballistics, along with new gun and ammunition designs, the necessity of in-depth analysis of the shot event is continuously increasing. Numerical simulations of interior ballistics problems are useful for optimising new designs or explaining complex issues, regarding performance instabilities and catastrophic failures. With the rise of the computing power, there is a significant urge to drive the numerical errors towards machine zero. This goal demands using methods of high order of accuracy in both space and time. Current methods allow to achieve an arbitrary order of numerical accuracy, thus allowing to shift the focus towards sophistication of the mathematical model of the studied phenomenon. Therefore, in this work, some numerical schemes, in context of finite volume method, are reviewed and studied using well established test problems. The results of the presented analysis are meant to become the basis for future development of a high order numerical scheme for simulation of interior ballistics problems.

Numerical Calculation and Uncertain Optimization of Energy Conversion in Interior Ballistics Stage

Gun firing is a process that converts propellant chemical energy to projectile kinetic energy and other kinds of energies. In order to explore the energy conversion process, firstly, the interior ballistics mathematical model and the barrel-projectile finite element model are built and solved. Then, the related variable values and energy values are obtained and discussed. Finally, for improving energy efficiency, the interval uncertainty optimization problem is modeled, and then solved using the two-layer nested optimization strategy and back-propagation (BP) neural network surrogate model. Calculation results show that, after optimization, the heat efficiency raises from 31.13% to 33.05% and the max rifling stress decreases from 893.68 to 859.76 Mpa, which would improve the firing performance and prolong the lifetime of the gun barrel.