Interior Ballistics

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Interior ballistics is the study of the burning characteristics of propellants and the resulting in-bore motion they impart to projectiles they are intended to launch.  The longitudinal in-bore acceleration and velocity imparted to the projectiles are typically of primary interest, but occasionally, the spin rate vs. time or in-bore travel is of interest, along with a wear assessment of the features intended to provide spin to the projectile.

The following are typical interior ballistics objectives Arrow Tech can achieve:

• Analysis/characterization of propellant performance and design of propellants for a particular application.
• Propellant selection for production ammunition and high velocity test fixtures.
• Assessment of the potential for “stickers” in large caliber guns.
• Wear assessment of iron, copper and plastic rotating bands in various applications.
• Fitting of peak pressure and muzzle velocity data to measured pressure–time history.
• Use of Interior ballistics simulations to determine in-bore acceleration, spin rates, etc. as a function of time or in-bore travel.

Arrow Tech personnel have been involved with all of the above listed facets of interior ballistics in our 30+ years of working with gun launched projectiles.