Experimental and numerical analysis of thermo-chemical erosion in gun steel

Abstract

Various factors of thermo-chemical erosion process in gun steel were analysed. The factors are mainly related to the thermal load of gun barrel inside surface, characteristics of barrel surface and chemical interactions between propellant combustion products and barrel surface. The experimental simulation of conditions in gun barrel was carried out by vented vessel firings in the device based on modification of 37 mm M39 gun. The nozzle mass loss during firing was the measure of gun steel erosion. The main thermal factor of erosion is maximum nozzle inner surface temperature. This temperature was determined experimentally by micro thermocouples measurements at specified distance away from the inner surface and by numerical analysis of the inverse heat conduction problem. Modelling of two-phase flow of propellant combustion products and unburned propellant grains in the vented vessel and heat transfer to the nozzle were conducted using developed one-dimensional interior ballistic code and computational fluid dynamics simulation in FLUENT. Influence of different propellants, titanium-dioxide/wax wear reducing liner and tungsten-disulfide nanoparticles layer on nozzle erosion was analysed. Good agreement between experimental and computational results was achieved.