Experimental techniques for ballistic pressure measurements and recent development in means of calibration

This paper presents a study carried out with the commonly used experimental techniques of ballistic pressure measurement. The comparison criteria were the peak chamber pressure and its standard deviation inside specific weapon/ammunition system configurations. It is impossible to determine exactly how precise either crusher, direct or conformal transducer methods are, as there is no way to know exactly what the actual pressure is; Nevertheless, the combined use of these measuring techniques could improve accuracy. Furthermore, a particular attention has been devoted to the problem of calibration. Calibration of crusher gauges and piezoelectric transducers is paramount and an essential task for a correct determination of the pressure inside a weapon. This topic has not been completely addressed yet and still requires further investigation. In this work, state of the art calibration methods are presented together with their specific aspects. Many solutions have been developed to satisfy this demand; nevertheless current systems do not cover the whole range of needs, calling for further development effort. In this work, research being carried out for the development of suitable practical calibration methods will be presented. The behavior of copper crushers under different high strain rates by the use of the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bars (SHPB) technique is investigated in particular. The Johnson-Cook model was employed as suitable model for the numerical study using FEM code