INVESTIGATION OF SAFETY MECHANISMS IN THE MORTAR FUZES

Abstract

In the international arena, the defense industry, which is one of the main factors determining the economic and political power of the countries, is constantly in need of change, innovation and modernization in parallel with the technological developments in the world. Our country, which is open to multi-faceted threats in terms of its geopolitical and geostrategic position, must reach a military power with the ability and ability to support the national security policy and develop its military power in accordance with the requirements of the era. In line with this importance and purpose, the reduction and increases in time, spin and distance are of great importance when the arming time and spin of the safety arming mechanisms used in military-critical rifle and smoothbore ammunition fuzes are fully determined and necessary. The subsystems of the fuzes, which are used in ammunition of large and medium caliber, which are called as the first firing system of ammunition; dynamic movements in the internal mechanisms of the fuzes, which provide the critical balance between safety and functionality, are investigated. These dynamic movements are the resultant function of the inertia forces of the ammunition at the time of the firing and the centrifugal forces that the barrel's groove sets impart to the ammunition. The output of this dynamic movement is a safety parameter which is called as front of barrel safety in ammunition, which ensures that the weapon system and personnel remain safe in all kinds of negative scenarios during shooting. In this article, the effects of the geometries of the gearing systems on the safety parameters on the fuzes are discussed. The pallet-wheel pair used in mechanical fuzes; They slow down the movement of the gear system, delaying the detonator on the rotor to come under the firing pin, thereby extending the safety distance to the front of the barrel. The motion wheel and the pallet pair dampen the effects of high rotation and inertial forces and act as brakes. In this study, the effects of contact points of the pallet and the escape wheel to the arming time that affects muzzle safety distance were investigated. Pallet and the escape wheel are situated in the fuze safety and arming device that provides the security of the armed forces personnel and their equipment by preventing the function of the fuze from stockpile to safety seperation sequence. In this experimental study, different radius were applied to the pallet contact points in the smoothbore mortar fuzes in order to investigate arming time differencies. As a result of this study, it has become a guide for the revisions to be made on pallet and wheel pair which are crititic in terms of installation time and front barrel safety in our existing mechanical impact mortar fuzes and new fuze designs. Integrating the revisions to the safety arming mechanism will be of great importance in terms of safety and security. As a result of the studies, it has been observed that as the contact point radius of the pallet increases, the installation time decreases inversely, ie the safety distance of the front of the barrel decreases. The determination of the net determination of the duration of the establishment and, where necessary, the shortening of time and distance are of great importance. As result, it was concluded that the increase in the contact radius of the pallet reduces the arming time, which led the muzzle safety distance to decrease. In addition, this work is of great importance in order to prevent any fatal and wounded accident of Turkish Armed Forces and Security Forces with mortar ammunition.Büyük ve orta kalibreli mühimmatlarda kullanılan ve mühimmatın ilk ateşleme sistemi olarak adlandırılan tapaların alt sistemleri ele alınarak; emniyet ve fonksiyonellik arasındaki kritik dengeyi sağlayan tapaların iç mekanizmalarındaki dinamik hareketler incelenmiştir. Bu dinamik hareketler mühimmatın atış anında oluşan atalet kuvvetleri ve namlunun yiv setlerinin mühimmata kazandırdığı merkezkaç kuvvetlerinin bileşke fonksiyonudur. Bu dinamik hareketin çıktısı mühimmatlarda namlu önü emniyeti olarak adlandırılan, silah sistemi ve personeli atış esnasında her türlü olumsuz senaryolarda güvende kalmasını sağlayan bir emniyet parametresidir. Bu makalede tapaların içerisinde bulunan dişli çark sistemlerinin geometrilerinin bu emniyet parametrelerine ne düzeyde ve nasıl etki ettiklerinin çalışmaları yer almaktadır. Bu çalışmada, pandül ve çark ikilisinin birlikte çalıştığı temas noktalarının, kurulma süresine yani namlu önü emniyet mesafesine olan etkileri araştırılmıştır. Pandül ve çark ikilisi, depolamadan güvenli atış yapılıncaya kadar geçen sürede, tapanın fonksiyon yapmasını engelleyerek silahlı kuvvetler personelinin ve donanımlarının güvenliğini sağlayan, güvenlik ve kurma mekanizması içerisinde yer almaktadır. Yapılan bu çalışmada, dönüsüz (kuyruk dengeli) havan tapasındaki pandülün temas noktalarına farklı radiuslar verilerek kurulma süreleri incelenmiştir. Yapılan çalışma sonucunda pandülün temas nokta radius artışının kurulma süresini azalttığı, yani namlu önü emniyet mesafesini düşürdüğü sonucuna varılmıştır.