Study of In-Bore Parameters of Armament Systems Using Doppler Radars

Abstract

Performance evaluation of artillery gun system is carried out during the dynamic firing of armament stores. The recording of different ballistics parameters during dynamic firing plays an important role in assessment of armament stores. For characterization of internal ballistics of a gun and propellant, the velocity-time profile of the projectile and associated chamber pressure inside the barrel are two of the most crucial parameters. This paper presents details of measurement of in-bore velocity-time profile using Doppler radar systems. From the velocity time profile, acceleration-time profile has been obtained and subsequently base pressure and breech pressure time profiles have been calculated. The paper also deals with the effect of charge mass decay profile with time during combustion of propellant on computation of breech pressure-time profile. The average error observed between measured peak breech pressure from piezoelectric transducer and computed peak breech pressure from in-bore radar data is of the order of 2.3%.