Experimental and Computing Methods to Determine the External Surface Temperature of the Small Arms Weapon Systems Barrel

Abstract

The need to determine the small arms weapon system barrel temperature under a variety of conditions makes
modelling and simulation a good alternative to the expensive real tests. Therefore, in a unique way, this paper includes three alternatives to assess the external surface temperature in order to better understand the balance between the chosen calculation method accuracy and the computed time. For numerical simulations, the initial conditions were established based on STANREC 4367 thermodynamic interior ballistic model. The heat transfer was solved for One-Dimensional and Two-Dimensional model using the finite difference discretisation method, with code written in Matlab. The Three-Dimensional model was resolved by finite element analysis method in Ansys. The simulations results are validated by means of the results obtained in case of two real firing scenarios. During the field testing, a new detection method based on shockwaves microphones was used in order to exactly establish the moment of each shoot and to precisely observe the temperature evolution on barrel surface.