Technical report WVT-TR-
74033. Benet Weapons Laboratory. Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, N.Y. 1974, - 33 p.One difficulty in the wear prediction in new cannon systems is the uncertainty in its service life criteria. For tubes with low erosion rate, the service life is generally fatigue limited, and in tubes with high erosion rate the service life is limited by the accuracy of rounds fired. This accuracy in turn depends on the extent of erosion at the origin of rifling of a gun tube. Any correspondence in the bore enlargement and the accuracy of firing is non-existent. It varies from weapon to weapon, and within the weapon, it varies between different charges and different projectiles. It is this factor that has rendered earlier wear prediction equations unworkable. To circumvent this problem, equations have been developed that provide the wear rate of cannon from the internal ballistic data. This rate changes as rounds accumulate on a tube. Two equations have been developed that provide an upper and a lower limit for the wear rate of all cannon. The calculated results agree well with most cannon tubes. It is found that with the help of these equations, wear rate of totally rev systems can be predicted to within about 25% of that observed in most cannon with very few exceptions.Contents:
Introduction.
Background.
Earlier Work.
Discussion of Earlier Work.
New Approach.
Theoretical Considerations.
First Equation.
Discussion.
Second Equation.
Discussion.
Conclusion.
