The influence of the internal ballistic pressure on the rifled barrel stress response

This paper focused on the 12.7 mm gun barrel stress response caused by the pressure of the gunpowder gases. During the firing process, the barrel is loaded by different mechanical, chemical and thermal loads. In this paper except the pressure of the propellant combustion, all the other loads were ignored. The pressure loads are obtained with a mathematical model of the interior ballistic. The Lame equations for the thick-walled cylinder were used to calculate the barrel stress response. The loads are applied on a certain barrel cross-section for a defined time. Two 3D models of the barrel with and without grooves were used to perform a numerical simulation. A comparison between results for the two types of barrels shows a good agreement between the stresses obtained by the analytical and numerical methods.