ADVANCED GUN BARREL DESIGN

1Advanced guns for future Naval systems such as Phalanx will incorporate innovative high-performance chemical and electrical propulsion concepts such as cased telescoped ammunition (CTA) and electro-thermal chemical (ETC) guns to achieve high ballistic performance. The combination of high performance, high firing rate (over 1000 rounds per minute per barrel), and extensive burst fire duration imposes extreme heating loads on the barrels that cannot be withstood by conventional barrel design techniques. In recent years, new materials, coating, platings, and manufacturing techniques have been developed that may be successfully applied to high-performance gun barrel design. High melting temperature yet resilient ceramics, coating and sputtering techniques for applying high temperature materials, and new metals and compound design techniques incorporating liners, etc., are conceptually promising but need to undergo design and evaluation. During the proposed program, candidate meterials and processes for advanced gun barrel design will be identified and evaluated. The Phase I effort will include interior ballistic simulations to help define the themal and pressure environment; formulation of innovative barrel design concepts that take advantage of material properties; structural design analyses to evaluate material configurations in the ballistic environment; and heat conduction simulations to evaluate thermal response and behavior under burst-fire conditions. It is anticipated that one or more advanced barrel design configurations will be shown to be feasible and suitable for experimental development and evaluation during Phase II.