Abstract
Transverse motion of a projectile during launch is detrimental to firing accuracy, structural integrity, and/or on-board electronics performance of the projectile. One manifest contributing factor to the undesired motion is imperfect bore centerline straightness. This paper starts with the presentation of a deterministic barrel model that possesses both vertical and lateral deviations from centerline in accordance with measurement data, followed by a novel approach to simulating comprehensive barrel centerline variations for the investigation of projectile balloting^1 motions. A modern projectile was adopted for this study. In-bore projectile responses at various locations of the projectile while traveling through the simulated gun tubes were obtained. The balloting was evaluated in both time and frequency domains. Some statistical quantities and the significance were outlined.
Highlights
Balloting refers to any transverse motion of a projectile traveling in a gun tube
The causes of projectile balloting may be attributable to the following factors: asymmetric pressure applied at projectile base, projectile center of gravity (c.g.) and principal axis offset from bore centerline, insufficient stiffness of projectile-gun interface, engraving interaction among projectile components, and imperfect straightness of gun barrel centerline
Plostins et al [3,4,5] investigated the effects of sabot bore-rider stiffness on launch dynamics of the XM881 and M900 projectiles recently
Summary
Balloting refers to any transverse motion of a projectile traveling in a gun tube. Substantial in-bore balloting could lead to erratic launch conditions that cause premature tumbling and short trajectory, i.e., greatly reduce the firing accuracy. This issue must be addressed for a modern weapon such as mid-range precision guided projectile in which the effectiveness of the ammunition is mainly driven by hitting accuracy and consistency. This paper focused on creating a complete profile of gun barrel centerline variations. An array of gun barrels was generated through computer simulations, which constituted a good representation of regular barrel centerline variations profile.
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