Popis: |
Benet Laboratories has the responsibility for safe fatigue life (durability) testing of cannon system components. This safe fatigue or service life evaluation is accomplished by conducting constant amplitude fatigue testing in a laboratory setting. One such cannon component that requires testing is the gun tube. After each tube has received the required number of live fire rounds necessary to generate initial cracking at the bore surface (also known as heat-check cracking), it is brought to the laboratory for final hydraulic fatigue testing. A sample size of two 155-mm M776 gun tubes was hydraulically fatigue tested to failure at Benet Laboratories to assist in determining the safe fatigue life for the weapon. This report contains the results of the fatigue tests conducted on the subject tubes, including material inspections, failure lives, and the resulting value for safe fatigue life of the XM776 gun tube. |