Status Report: Small calibre test equipment

Authors:

  • Bo Johansson

Publish date: 2009-12-31

Report number: FOI-R--2882--SE

Pages: 23

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • small calibre
  • fragment simulator
  • protection
  • yaw angle
  • test facility
  • ballistic limit test

Abstract

When the projectile strikes a target it will always have a yawed attitude to the firing direction. A yaw angle is considered as large if it will noticeably affect the penetration off the target. At ballistic limit tests it is important to only use test results where the yaw angles are small enough to not affect the penetration sorely.Because of this it is necessary to be able to estimate the yaw angle of a projectile when it strikes a target. A small calibre test facility for automated ballistic tests is under construction. The measurement device consists of two sets of camera pairs placed at two positions along the firing direction. Each camera pair produces images of the projectile in two perpendicular projections. The images are then analysed to obtain the yaw angle of the projectile at two positions along the direction of fire. Additionally, the average velocity of the projectile between the two positions is obtained. The report describes in detail the function of the test facility and the remaining work that has to be done to make the equipment operational for ballistic limit tests.