Speaker: Jonathan Howard
Title: Interior Ballistic Modeling.
Affiliation: St. Marks Powder, A General Dynamics Company.
Date: Friday, March 30, 2001.
Place and Time: Room 101 - Love Building, 3:35 pm.
Refreshments: Room 204 - Love Building, 3:00 pm.

Abstract. The talk focuses on the modeling aspects of the interior ballistic cycle of gun systems. This includes the time from main propellant charge ignition and gun pressurization to projectile exit. Basic solid propellant chemistry and burn rate characteristics are given along with a model for the interior ballistic cycle. The model's governing equations, a system of ODE's, are solved numerically to give the gun's pressure, gas temperature, projectile travel and velocity over time. From this model, some examples are presented which show how the model is used to optimize ballistic performance with respect to propellant chemistry and geometry. At the close of the talk, some more advance ballistic models will be briefly reviewed.