Insensitive High Energy Propellants for Advanced Gun Concepts

Abstract

In recent years, substantial improvements in the performance of solid propellant guns have resulted from the development of higher energy propellants, higher loading density propellant charge configurations, and propellant geometries and concepts that have provided the progressively increasing gas generation rates required to efficiently use available increases in total energy. Unfortunately, these same features also typically lead to increases in ammunition vulnerability to enemy threats. Coupled with the current interest in much lighter fighting vehicles, the need for ammunition with reduced rather than increased sensitivity is obvious. This report describes the development of a new approach in the U.S. Army to address propellant energy/ performance and sensitivity/vulnerability as a single set of critical design requirements, to be addressed concurrently from the very beginning of the new energetic material research and development cycle. Some elements of this work were presented in abbreviated form at the 19th International Symposium on Ballistics in Interlaken, Switzerland in May 2001 [1]. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The development and execution of a major new thrust such as the Insensitive High Energy Munitions (IHEM) Program involve the contributions of many people at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). Acknowledgment is made to Drs. Arpad Juhasz, Thomas Minor, and William Oberle for contributions through the years to high progressivity/high density and in electro-thermal-chemical gun propulsion concepts. The work of Mr. Jerry Watson provided the background for shaped charge jet vulnerability response plot in Figure 11. Dr. Rob Lieb performs mechanical property measurements and interprets their significance. He also performs the microscopic examination of the non-ignited shear-punch samples. Many people are instrumental in conducting the small-scale vulnerability experiments at ARL. Dr. Reed Skaggs is in charge of our battlefield information coordination efforts, Mr. Al Bines and Mr. Bill Sunderland conduct the electric flyer experiments, and Dr. Larry Vande Kieft and Mr. Oliver Blake run the hot fragment conductive ignition and shear-punch experiment. We thank Dr.

Review on Promising Insensitive Energetic Materials

“…Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) process like thermoplastics but behave like elastomers at gun operating temperatures, while offering the opportunity for easy inclusion of energetic fillers, good physical properties, and recycling. Early LOVA formulations were based on energetic fillers in nonenergetic binders, but the quest for higher performance led to the focus on the use of energetic TPEs (or ETPEs, such as the oxetanes BAMO (3,3-bis(azidomethyl)oxetane) and AMMO (3-azidomethyl-3-methyloxetane)) ( Figure 13) [100]. …”

Wstępne analizy wymagań balistycznych prochów LOVA do amunicji czołgowej nowej generacji

“…W początkowym etapie realizacji projektu badawczo-rozwojowego założono, że proch JA-2 (a właściwie jego charakterystyki geometryczne ziaren oraz energetyczno-balistyczne) będzie prochem wzorcowym w stosunku do opracowywanego prochu małowrażliwego. Na rysunku 1 pokazano zaczerpnięte z raportu [3] zestawienie siły prochu dla prochów opracowanych w różnych latach. Wartości siły prochu JA-2 umiejscowione są pomiędzy wartościami siły prochów typu LOVA: XM-39 oraz M-43.…”

“…1. Zestawienie wartości siły prochu dla prochów JA-2, XM-39 oraz M-43 na tle wybranych prochów opracowanych w latach 1930-2010 [3] Na podstawie zarejestrowanego (w czasie) ciśnienia gazów prochowych określono siłę prochu, kowolumen gazów prochowych oraz krzywe żywości dynamicznej. Wykorzystując wyniki pomiarów geometrii ziaren prochu określono współczynnik liniowej szybkości spalania.…”

Computational analysis of the compressible flow driven by a piston in a ballistic range

“…According to the previous works [3][4], the best performance of the ballistic range with respect to the projectile stability occurs when the projectile base pressure is kept constant through out the flight of the projectile. In this context, the piezometric ratio is defined as the peak acceleration to the average acceleration of the projectile, which is equivalent to the ratio of the peak pressure to the average pressure at the base of the projectile during its flight [11]. Thus, the less is the piezometric ratio, the more stable the projectile will be, because of reduced impact loading.…”