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MAE 105 - Fall '04
Libraries @ UCSD
Gas Guns
 

Gas guns are precision instruments for flyer plate and other impact experiments.The flyer plate experiments produce extremely high rates in exceptionally clean states of homogeneous strainGas guns include a small, moderate-velocity instrument of 60 mm bore, a large, high-velocity instrument of 56 mm bore, a 152 mm bore instrument, and a two-stage ultrahigh-velocity equipment. The 60 mm and 152 mm gun barrels are broached.

60 mm Gas Gun:

  • Up to 200 m/s impact velocities
  • Micro-grooved barrel
  • Normal impact and pressure-shear experiments
  • Momentum-trapped recovery experiments
  • Normal and transverse displacement measurements by interferometry
  • Normal velocity by interferometry.

    56 mm Gas Gun:

  • Over 1000 m/s impact velocities Plate impact experiments
  • Sphere and rod impact geometries
  • Soft recovery system
  • VISAR velocity measurement system
  • Flash X-ray radiographic capability.

    152 mm Gas Gun:

  • 6 inch broached barrel
  • Launches a 7 kg projectile at 200 m/s;a 1 kg projectile up to 400 m/s
  • 5 m barrel includes a full vacuum experimental and recovery chamber
  • Especially suited for both oblique and normal plate impact experiments
  • Is used for the "Penetrator Knife Test" which measures the dynamic fracture toughness of the skin of a large pressure vessel such as the NASA Space Station
  • Suitable for impact testing of concrete and composite structures with large projectiles.

    1" Gas Gun:

  • Over 1100 m/s impact velocities for 11 gm projectiles
  • Hadland Imacon 200 digital camera captures high-speed photography data
  • Flash radiography and residual velocity measurement capabilities
  • Presently used to study the ballistic performance and failure of various armor grade ceramic tiles.