Developing General Requirements for a Variable Volume Climatic Chamber

Abstract

Problem statement. Analysis of Ukrainian standards, harmonized with NATO standards, has shown that during tests of armaments and military equipment, including armored vehicles and motor vehicles, is due to need to conduct tests for the effects of climatic factors. One of the types of testing for climatic factors is the determination of resistance to increase temperature, decrease temperature and increase humidity. To reproduce these conditions, climatic chambers of corresponding dimensions or variable volume chambers are used. The advantage of a climatic chamber with variable volume is its flexibility, i.e. depending on the overall dimensions of the test object its working volume can be changed, which in turn significantly reduces energy consumption and the time to reach the working mode of the chamber.
 An important point when working out the general requirements for a climatic chamber of variable volume is to consider the requirements of international and national regulations in the field of defense. The most relevant are military standards that are harmonized with STANAG international military standards.
 As of today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lack measuring and testing facilities to assess armored vehicles and automotive equipment against the above-mentioned climatic characteristics. Creation of a climatic chamber of variable volume based on the developed general requirements will make it possible to obtain quantitative values of the characteristics to be assessed during tests.
 The purpose of this article is to improve the efficiency of testing weapons and military equipment against external climatic factors by developing general requirements for a climatic chamber with variable volume.
 Conclusions. The paper proposes general requirements for a climatic chamber with variable volume, which were worked out taking into account the requirements of international and national normative documents in the field of defense. The general requirements define the composition of the chamber, its purpose, basic tasks, possibilities, conditions of application, metrological assurance. Practical implementation of the obtained results consists in the possibility of their application during the development of tender documentation for the purchase of the chamber, which will ensure an increase in the efficiency of laboratory tests of various types of weapons and military equipment on the effects of climatic factors.