Experimental and Numerical Study on the Protection Efficiency of a Diamond-Shaped Thermal Jacket for Gun Barrels

Abstract Experimental and numerical investigations on the protection efficiency of a diamond-shaped thermal jacket made of the certain braided composites with anisotropic material properties for gun barrels were carried out to gain an insight into its thermal–structural behavior and performance. The experiments for the gun barrels with and without the thermal jacket subjected to unilateral thermal radiation were conducted on a thermal jacket protection efficiency experimental system. Three-dimensional finite element models were established to perform the thermal–structural analysis and approximate the temperature distribution and thermal deformation of the shrouded gun barrel and bare gun tube. The experimental results validated the numerical models for the study of solar radiation on the thermal–structural characteristics of the gun barrels with and without the thermal jacket. The temperature changes together with their gradients, and the thermal deformation of the gun tube shrouded with the thermal jacket were notably less than that of the bare gun tube. The nonuniform temperature distribution caused by unilateral radiation can be substantially ameliorated by the thermal jacket. The developed diamond-shaped thermal jacket owned satisfactory protection effectiveness. In addition, moderately increasing the thermal jacket's thickness or the air gap between the thermal jacket and gun tube can decrease the muzzle deflection of the shrouded gun barrels. The work is promising in providing both theoretical and practical contributions in design of shrouded tank gun barrels aiming at achieving high first shot accuracy.