Technical Papers and Presentations

Carbon fiber composites are used across a wide range of industries to provide products with a combination of reduced weight and increased strength. Integration of carbon fiber composites into gun barrels not only offers superior strength, rigidity and lighter weight compared to traditional barrels but can provide improved thermal response. By tailoring the properties of the carbon fiber and matrix material, composite barrels with thermal characteristics that rapidly dissipate heat can be developed. The resulting improvement in temperature distribution and increased dissipation of heat in the barrel can result in enhanced long-term performance.

To study the effect of combined temperature and pressure loading on the performance of a composite fiber reinforced barrel, a three-dimensional thermal-mechanical finite element model was developed using the Composite Materials Module of COMSOL Multiphysics^® simulation software. The barrel was modeled as a steel liner on top of which a multi-layer stack of carbon-reinforced composite material is wrapped.

Layerwise theory (LWT) formulation was used to model the mechanical response of the composite laminate, structural stability was analyzed using Tsai-Wu orthotropic failure criterion. Internal pressure loading and thermo-mechanical loading of the composite barrel was applied to study the effect of ply orientation and lay-up orientation of the composite layers on the interlaminar stresses and stress distribution along the barrel.