Numerical simulations for artillery barrel temperature variation considering mechanical friction heat under continuous shots

Abstract

Accurate modeling of artillery barrel temperature distribution is important to evaluate thermochemical-mechanical erosion and thermal shock. For such heat conduction problems, the previous works ignore frictional heat, especially for continuous shots. To end this, this paper proposes a numerical simulation approach for the temperature field on the inner barrel wall considering the frictional temperature rise. In the novel scheme, the frictional temperature between the barrel and the rotating band is derived from the frictional heat theory, and the heat transfer model is computed coupling the interior ballistic codes with the finite difference method. A close-formed solution for the continuous shots with an incomplete cooling barrel is provided, and followed by a finite element numerical simulation. The good agreement between the aforementioned two simulations demonstrates a good accuracy of the developed solution form. The results show that there is a temperature peak at the initial part of the rifling, which is much higher than the other parts, and far exceeds the critical phase transition temperature of the barrel steel material.