Material Selection for Ceramic Gun Tube Liner

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory is investigating the application of ceramics as bore materials in advanced gun systems. The lower mass and improved high temperature performance of ceramics over traditional gun steels could produce new barrels with improved service life and lower weight while enabling the use of new propellants. Several different ceramics have been researched into which material would best survive the interior ballistic conditions for a variety of different caliber systems. The candidate materials are commercially available monolithic ceramics. Alumina, zirconia, three silicon carbide compositions, two silicon nitride compositions, and a SiAlON material were initially selected. A coupled approach of modeling and experimental verification led to the downselection of the silicon nitride and SiAlON materials as the most capable of surviving the interior ballistic conditions and functioning as a barrel liner. This paper describes the tests, presents the results, and discusses the reasons for these selections.