Analysis of Premature Wear-Out of Aircraft Gun Barrel by Applying a Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

Firing from gun armament generates a wide range of physico-chemical phenomena contributing to the degradation of barrel material, e.g. pressure, high temperature, chemically aggressive character of post-detonation gases and friction of a driving band. In this work the technique of thin foils was used in Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to study the influence of physicochemical phenomena on the material microstructure of aircraft gun barrel. A mechanism and reason of premature wear-out of the barrel under consideration was also outlined by utilising light microscopy and hardness measurements.