Feasibility Study of Instrumenting Small Arms Weapon Bore for Strain Measurements.

Abstract : A study was undertaken to determine the optimum sensing device for measuring the bore strain of a gun tube during rapid firing. The hostile environment that exists within the gun tube and the general operational requirements of the gun tube place severe requirements on any system considered. After consideration of a number of systems and a systematic rating of each, two were selected for detailed study. These were a flash x-ray system and a dual path acoustical interferometer system which was devised as a result of this project. Although neither system was found to be suitable over the entire range of gun tube geometrics and operational conditions, the dual path acoustical interferometric is recommended as the most suitable system. (Author)