Multi-compartment Mortar Increment Container for Pressure Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current mortar systems face challenges in extending range while maintaining compatibility with existing weapon components, particularly due to limitations in propellant burning rates and pressure distribution across the mortar barrel.
Innovation Solution
A multi-compartment mortar increment container (MIC) is designed with separate compartments for propellants of different burn rates, allowing for controlled burning sequences to optimize pressure-time curves and increase projectile velocity without exceeding safe pressure limits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stress or pressure
If a slower burning progressive propellant is used to extend range and reduce peak pressure, then the peak pressure is reduced and range is extended, but the pressure is distributed more evenly across the barrel including weaker sections which cannot withstand the pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The propelling charge is divided into multiple compartments with different propellant types (fast-burning and slow-burning). This segmentation allows the fast-burning propellant to generate initial peak pressure at the breech where the barrel is strongest, while the slow-burning propellant provides sustained pressure for extended range, resolving the contradiction between peak pressure reduction and barrel strength utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the propelling charge have different burning rates tailored to specific locations. The fast-burning propellant is positioned to concentrate pressure at the breech end where the barrel is strongest, while the slow-burning propellant extends pressure distribution toward the muzzle. This local differentiation allows each section of the barrel to experience pressure appropriate to its structural capacity.
2Length of moving object
If a slower burning propellant is used to extend range, then range is extended, but the propellant may not be consumed in time prior to the mortar munition exiting the weapon system
Solution Approach 1:
The propelling charge is segmented into fast-burning and slow-burning compartments. The fast-burning propellant ensures rapid initial combustion and early pressure generation to propel the projectile quickly, while the slow-burning propellant provides extended combustion duration for additional range. This temporal segmentation resolves the contradiction between extended range and timely propellant consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The combustion process occurs in distinct phases or periods: an initial rapid combustion phase from the fast-burning propellant, followed by a sustained combustion phase from the slow-burning propellant. This periodic action pattern ensures complete propellant consumption within the required time frame while achieving extended range through the second phase.
3Speed
If propellant formulation and charge design are modified to achieve varying ballistic performance, then ballistic performance is improved, but the cost increases and challenges arise in interfacing with current weapon components
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of developing a completely new complex progressive propellant formulation, the solution segments the existing propellant charge into multiple compartments with different burning rates. This approach achieves varying ballistic performance using simpler, more manageable separate charges rather than a single complex formulation, reducing both cost and interfacing challenges.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines multiple simpler propellant charges with different characteristics into a single integrated propelling charge assembly. This merging approach achieves the desired ballistic performance variation without requiring a single complex new propellant formulation or charge design, thereby reducing cost and simplifying interfacing with existing weapon components.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The multi-compartment MIC enables increased range and velocity of mortar projectiles while ensuring compatibility with existing systems, by distributing pressure more evenly and maintaining safe operational pressures within the mortar barrel.
Implementation Method 1
The first propellant has a slower burn rate than the second propellant
Data Source
AI summary
A multi-compartment mortar increment container (MIC) enables burning of two propellants to broaden the pressure-time curve providing additional energy and force behind a mortar shell while maintaining allowable pressures. During the ballistic cycle, the mortar increment container burns allowing the faster propellant to mix with the slower propellant. The slower propellant will burn later in the ballistic cycle generating higher pressure behind the projectile leading to higher velocity.