Velocity Control of Diaphragmless Vertical Gas Gun for Low Pressure Ranges

In the field of impact engineering, high-speed impact phenomena are simulated using a projectile accelerator. At the Impact Engineering Laboratory in Ritsumeikan University, a single-stage gas gun was designed to investigate the high-speed penetration phenomena of impacts in sand, which is known to show fluid-like behavior. The gas gun consists of a 2 m launch tube that can achieve projectile muzzle velocities of up to around 500 m/s. The theoretical muzzle velocity of the projectile can be calculated by considering the speed of sound and the specific heat ratio of propellant gases. A performance evaluation for high-pressure ranges of 1 MPa and higher in a high-pressure vessel has been conducted. When fitting parameters are introduced to the theoretical formula, good agreement is obtained with the experimental results. In this study, experiments for low pressure ranges were conducted to predict the projectile velocity and to investigate the minimum velocity limit of the projectile. By introducing fitting parameters to the theoretical formula, the projectile velocity could be predicted accurately for pressure ranges less than 1 MPa. Furthermore, the minimum velocity limit of this equipment was found to be around 30 m/s.