A gun recoil system employing a magnetorheological fluid damper

Abstract

This research aims to design and control a full scale gun recoil buffering system which works under real firing impact loading conditions. A conventional gun recoil absorber is replaced with a controllable magnetorheological (MR) fluid damper. Through dynamic analysis of the gun recoil system, a theoretical model for optimal design and control of the MR fluid damper for impact loadings is derived. The optimal displacement, velocity and optimal design rules are obtained. By applying the optimal design theory to protect against impact loadings, an MR fluid damper for a full scale gun recoil system is designed and manufactured. An experimental study is carried out on a firing test rig which consists of a 30 mm caliber, multi-action automatic gun with an MR damper mounted to the fixed base through a sliding guide. Experimental buffering results under passive control and optimal control are obtained. By comparison, optimal control is better than passive control, because it produces smaller variation in the recoil force while achieving less displacement of the recoil body. The optimal control strategy presented in this paper is open-loop with no feedback system needed. This means that the control process is sensor-free. This is a great benefit for a buffering system under impact loading, especially for a gun recoil system which usually works in a harsh environment.