A Study on the Vibration Damping of a Barrel Using Vibration Absorber

Abstract

Advanced tanks in the future combat system are expected to have the trends of large caliber, high explosive shell and light weight for destructive power and improvement in mobility. Their guns are required to have longer barrels to meet increased muzzle exit velocities. However, as the length of the barrel is extended, the vibrations induced by the breech forces in fire and the terrain lead to increased muzzle pointing errors. Therefore, the fire-induced and terrain-induced vibrations must be attenuated. A method to reduce these vibrations without the significant increase of the gun mass is to use the forward thermal shroud as part of a tuned mass damper. In this study, the dynamically-tuned-shroud using this shroud and leaf springs is introduced and its effectiveness on the vibration attenuations of the barrel are verified. The parametric studies on the stiffness of these leaf springs are performed and the analytical results are verified using the experimental model of the dynamically-tuned-shroud.