Laminated barrel axial stiffness assessment [of railguns]

Metallic laminations have proven an effective and robust means of containing the electromagnetic bursting loads imposed on railgun rails. The axial stiffness of this containment type, however, has not received adequate development focus. In weapon applications, the axial stiffness is extremely important for improving gun accuracy, by limiting barrel droop and by withstanding high slew rates during aiming. One issue is to what extent the laminations ran be used to provide "bending moment inertia" to resist the slewing and gravity loads on the barrel. A simple experiment was devised to determine the static and dynamic equivalent stiffness of such structures. The authors assessed the feasibility of achieving adequate barrel stiffness using laminated barrel structure with axial stiffeners, and developed and validated a mathematical model of the axial stiffness of laminated barrels. This paper describes this model along with the experimentation and the accompanying experimental results.