Analysis and attenuation of impulsive sound pressure in large caliber weapon during muzzle blast

Abstract

Due to the supersonic speed at which propellant gas flows through the gun barrel, a high intensity impulsive sound pressure is created, which has negative effects in many respects. Therefore, the high pressure waves generated due to muzzle blast flow of tank gun during firing is a critical issue to examine. The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze this high pressure impulsive sound, generated during the blast flow. The large caliber 120 mm K1A1 tank gun has been selected especially for this purpose. An axisymmetric computational domain has been constructed by employing Spalart Allmaras turbulence model to evaluate pressure and sound level in the tank gun using Computation Fluid Dynamics technique. Approximately 90% of pressure and 20 dB of sound level have been attenuated due to use of the three baffle silencer at the muzzle end of the gun barrel in comparison to the tank gun without silencer. Also, the sound pressure level at different points in the ambient region shows the same attenuation in the results. This study will be helpful to understand the blast wave characteristics and also to get a good idea to design silencer for large caliber weapon system.