Design of a Single Stage Gas Gun

Abstract

I new range of laboratory equipment is required in the impact and ballistics laboratory within the School of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales – Canberra Campus. The design of one item of this equipment, a single stage gas gun, is the subject of this report. This is prototype design which is to meet all relevant Australian Standards preferably without the requirement for external certification and inspection. The most challenging part of this design is the manufacture of the barrel. The school’s workshop can manufacture most of the items for this gun with the exception of the 3m long barrel with a 20mm hole bored through the centre and the vacuum vessel that will be used as the target chamber. This report includes the development of an analytical model for the gas dynamics of the gas gun to enable the prediction of the performance of the gun with various projectiles. The gas gun requirements and model have been included in this summary report.