초록
It is known that muzzle flash can be generated by the reaction between the oxygen in the air and unburned gunpowder contained in the propellant gas if a barrel is not long enough to burn gunpowder fully inside of the barrel. A hugh muzzle flash, which is a characteristic of small arms with short barrel length, disturbs a shooter in aiming at the target at night by making the shooter blind for a while and endangers the shooter's life by revealing firing position to enemies. In addition, the heat of muzzle flash can deteriorate the performance of thermal sights, which are attached to small arms for effective night combat. In this paper, flash suppressors of different shapes were designed for a newly developed 5.56mm caliber rifle with short barrel length and the performance of each flash suppressor to reduce the muzzle flash was compared by on-site test firing. Through the test firing, a highly efficient design of flash suppressor for reducing the muzzle flash was identified. The result of the paper can be referred when designing flash suppressors for small arms with short barrel length.