Effect of Magnetically Confined Plasma on the Fatigue Life of a Gun Barrel

As the inner wall pressure increases during gun shooting, the fatigue life of a gun barrel is reduced. This article proposed a method based on magnetically confined plasma theory to increase the fatigue life of a gun barrel. The core idea was to reduce the pressure on the inner wall of the gun barrel by restraining the movement of plasma inside it via the solenoid magnetic field. As a result, its fatigue life improved. The confinement mechanism of the solenoid magnetic field on plasma was first analyzed. The influence of different magnetic field strengths on plasma was studied through simulation modeling. The law of magnetically confined plasma in the gun barrel was obtained. Second, the inner wall pressure was tested after a solenoid magnetic field was added to the gun barrel. The effectiveness of the proposed method in reducing pressure on the inner wall of the gun barrel was verified. The electromagnetic interference introduced by high-power electrical appliances and solenoid magnetic field in the test was effectively reduced by adopting multistage electromagnetic shielding protection. A Manson–Coffin model was also used to evaluate the fatigue life of the gun barrel, and the results verified the feasibility of the proposed method for improving its fatigue life.