New LANL Group M-7 two-stage gun: Double-diaphragm and wrap-around gas breech
A new two-stage gun is being installed in a high explosive testing facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the purpose of subjecting insensitive high explosives to controlled projectile impacts so that shock-to-detonation transition can be studied in detail. This gun has been patterned after guns designed by Alois Stilp at Ernst Mach Institut (EMI) in Freiburg and Wintersweiler, Germany. Several changes were made to adapt the design to our needs. The gun has a 100-mm diameter pump tube and 33-mm and 50-mm diameter launch tubes; both pump and launch tubes are 7.6 m long. We plan to use only helium as the reservoir gas. Large hydraulic clamps hold the gun together in three places during a shot; these are located on both sides of the transition section and at the breech. These clamps make gun conversions to different setups relatively simple, i.e., the two-stage gun can be converted into a single-stage gun. A gas breech has been designed which can be operated in either wrap-around or double-diaphragm mode with a maximum operating pressure of 15,000 psi. Two-stage gun calculations indicate that in the gas breech configuration, projectile velocities up to 4 km/s can be obtained using helium in both the breech and the reservoir. The gun has been fabricated and is being installed at the present time. Testing is expected to begin in early 1993 if the startup difficulties do not become excessive.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 10185914
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-92-3227; CONF-9210181-1; ON: DE93000874
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 43. Aeroballistic Range Association (ARA) meeting,Columbus, OH (United States),2 Oct 1992; Other Information: PBD: [1992]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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