Shaped Charge Jet/Propellant Interactions in a Vented Compartment

摘要

When compartmentalization was first considered for the new main battle tanks (XM1) the Ballistic Research Laboratory with support from the XM1 Project Manager's Office, started to collect baseline data on compartmentalization that could be used in the design and implementation of vented ammunition compartments in the XM1 tank. This report describes a series of tests designed to study the environmental conditions present in a vented ammunition compartment when the propellant in a stowed round of ammunition is initiated by a shaped charge jet. These tests were conducted with an instrumented ammunition compartment containing a 105mm round of ammunition with live propellant and an inert warhead. Measurements of cartridge case rupture pressures, time histories of compartment pressures and ammunition temperatures, and effects of jet/propellant interactions were made with mechanical crush gauges, piezoelectric transducers, thermocouples, event screens, and witness plates. The propellant was initiated with a precision shaped charge. Data were acquired for a range of jet parameters and path lengths through the propellant. Some of the conclusions drawn from these tests were that the severity of the environment as measured by cartridge case rupture pressures and compartment pressures increased for either increases in jet residual and increases in the length of the jet's path through the propellant. The temperature profiles for neighboring ammunition were not sensitive to variations in jet strength and propellant paths for this series of tests.