Abstract
A barrel is a high length-to-diameter ratio cylinder that is influenced by environmental factors such as sunlight, precipitation, wind and clouds. Cross-barrel temperature differences caused by uneven heating or cooling lead to thermal deformation that degrades accuracy. Therefore, a barrel is covered by thermal shrouds to minimize the type of thermal deformation, "fall-of-shot". In this paper, an analytical and experimental study is presented to design the thermal shrouds for a gun barrel and to evaluate the thermal shroud effect. First, an analytical study on the thermal shroud effect to minimize thermal deformation of a gun barrel by sunlight and wind is performed. The coupled analysis of thermal fluid dynamics of the air flow between a barrel and thermal shrouds and thermal stresses of a barrel Is performed to clarify both the thermal shroud effect and the drift in gun muzzle orientation by thermal deformation. Second, experiments are carried out to test and evaluate the thermal shroud effect on the performance of a gun barrel. The drift in gun muzzle orientation against the solar radiation is confirmed by the experiments, and the results well agree with the analytical estimation. Third, three principal design factors that are presumed to have an effect on the performance of the thermal shrouds are also analyzed; sorts of shroud materials, wall-thickness of thermal shrouds, and distance of the gap between a barrel and thermal shrouds.