Gun performance is usually affected by the operating temperature of the ammunition or weapon. This is caused by several factors, amongst which the temperature dependency of the propellant ignition and combustion processes. Compensation of temperature effects on weapon or ammunition performance is possible if these processes are controllable. As the output of plasma igniters depends on the delivered electrical energy, application of plasma ignition facilitates in principle the possibility to compensate for the temperature effects. Computer simulations show that compensation of propellant temperature effects can be achieved if the initial ignition conditions can be regulated. The feasibility of this principle was verified experimentally. A plasma igniter was designed and manufactured, and ignition experiments were carried out using a closed bomb and a gun simulator. The results show that application of plasma ignition results in a significant reduction of the level and variability of the ignition delay and that variation of the electrical energy results in the desired controllability of the ignition conditions. From the obtained results it is concluded that regulation of the combustion conditions, as required for compensation of weapon and ammunition conditions, can be obtained by the application of the developed plasma igniter. It is also concluded that RDX-based LOVA propellants, which are difficult to ignite by conventional primers, are easily and reproducibly ignitable by using this plasma igniter.
展开▼
