Research on muzzle dynamic analysis of an overhead weapon station with the viscoelastic elastomer damper

Abstract

Live firing tests are difficult to realize, thus it is not clear whether the viscoelastic elastomer damper can effectively reduce the recoil force and recoil displacement, which determines the firing accuracy of the overhead weapon station. This paper constructed a rigid-flexible coupling dynamics model of overhead weapon station with the viscoelastic elastomer damper. The dynamic simulation parameters of the damper were determined according to the static pressure test results. A characterization method of the firing dispersion of the overhead weapon station was then proposed. Additionally, the influences of the viscoelastic elastomer damper and the spring damper on the muzzle dynamic characteristics and firing dispersion of the overhead weapon station were studied. The results show that: the recoil displacement and the recoil-return time with the viscoelastic elastomer damper were respectively reduced by 69.83% and 33.50% compared to the spring damper; By contrast the spring damper, the horizontal and vertical dispersion standard deviations of the overhead weapon station with the viscoelastic elastomer damper at different firing conditions were respectively decreased an average of 39.48% and 43.68%, while the firing dispersion was increased by an average of 41.89%. These results prove that the viscoelastic elastomer damper can significantly reduce and shorten the recoil displacement and the recoil time of the machine gun overhead weapon station, effectively reduce the muzzle jump and improve the firing accuracy of the overhead weapon station.