Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Defence Technology
journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/defence-technology

Numerical research on adverse effect of muzzle flow formed by

muzzle brake considering secondary combustion
Peng-fei Li, Xiao-bing Zhang*
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The simulation of the artillery interior and intermediate ballistics problem is performed to investigate
Received 4 March 2020 the influence of a gas dynamics device, muzzle brake, on the muzzle hazard phenomena, such as flash
Received in revised form and blast waves. The correlation of the chemical reactions with the characteristics of the muzzle flow
13 June 2020
field is analyzed by the simulation for a further understanding of the secondary combustion phenom-
Accepted 19 June 2020
enon of the muzzle flow. The novel structure of muzzle flow caused by the muzzle brake is presented by
Available online xxx
the simultaneous solution of the interior ballistics model and multi-species Navier-Stokes equations in
order to analyze the influence of the muzzle brake structure on the chemical reactions. The secondary
Keywords:
Muzzle flow
combustion of the muzzle flow due to the oxygen-supplement chemical reactions is obtained by the
Muzzle brake chemical reaction kinetic model. The interaction of the blast waves released from the muzzle brake is
Secondary combustion illustrated in detail and the mechanism of the formation of muzzle flash is analyzed. This research
Chemical reaction provides a reference for the studies on the suppression of the muzzle flash.
© 2020 China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi
Communications Co. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction [11e13]. With further research, scholars paid more attention to the
negative effects of the muzzle flow [14e16]. The problem becomes
Muzzle brake is an indispensable device for the lightweight more complicated when a muzzle brake is used for better opera-
design of artillery. However, the application of some specifically tional performance. Muzzle brake is a device in the muzzle part of
structured muzzle brake results in violent muzzle flash and severe the cannon barrel which employs the forward momentum of the
impingement on the equipment and people behind the muzzle. propellant gas to balance the recoil impulse on the barrel. But the
Therefore, a detailed investigation of the influence of the muzzle side effect of using a muzzle brake is the increase of the over-
brake is essential to control the shock wave and the secondary pressure of muzzle flow around the muzzle because the propellant
combustion of the muzzle flow. This study laid the focus on the gas is deflected and guided by the lateral slots [17]. As a conse-
effect of the specific structure of a muzzle brake and the reaction quence, the shock waves caused by the deflected propellant gases
mechanism of the propellant gas. pose a threat to the personnel and equipment on the side and rear
Muzzle flow has been widely investigated both experimentally of the muzzle. Recently, a lot of studies have been carried out to
and numerically for decades as the explosive releasing of the pro- investigate the details about muzzle brake, such as the stress dis-
pellant gas causes a variety of fatal hazards [1], and many reliable tribution of muzzle brake, recoiling efficiency, and the optimization
numerical methods were proposed [2e5]. Besides, the interaction of the structure to suppress the severe muzzle flow impingement
between the precursor flow and the propellant gas flow was [18e22]. In this study, the secondary combustion phenomenon of
analyzed [6e10]. Schmidt et al. studied the muzzle flow consid- the muzzle flow is investigated by the numerical method consid-
ering various realistic factors, these studies provided sufficient ering the influence of the lateral slots of the muzzle brake. The
reference and theoretical basis for the research on the muzzle flow numerical method adopted in this study is the multi-model
coupling method, which takes into account the entire shooting
process of the artillery and the special characteristics of the muzzle
* Corresponding author. flow field with a muzzle brake. Besides, the relationship between
E-mail addresses: pengfeinust@njust.edu.cn (P.-f. Li), zhangxb680504@163.com the chemical reactions and the particular structure of the muzzle
(X.-b. Zhang).
flow field is revealed by a detailed analysis of multiple
Peer review under responsibility of China Ordnance Society

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2020.06.019
2214-9147/© 2020 China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-
ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article as: Li P-f, Zhang X-b, Numerical research on adverse effect of muzzle flow formed by muzzle brake considering secondary
combustion, Defence Technology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2020.06.019
2 P.-f. Li, X.-b. Zhang / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx

computational data.  
8
In terms of the combustion of the propellant gas, Klingenberg >
> cZ 1 þ lZ þ mZ 2 ðZ < 1Þ
et al. studied the distribution of the muzzle flows and identified the >
>
<  
developing process of the muzzle flash as three stages, which are j ¼ c Z 1 þ ls Z ð1  Z < Z Þ (1)
>
> s k
the primary flash, intermediate flash and secondary flash [23,24]. It >
> Zk Zk
:
is concluded that the ignition of the secondary combustion is 1ðZ  Zk Þ
determined by the shock heating effect of the gas pressure and the
static gas temperature. The oxygen is mixed with the gas rest with where Z is the relative thickness of the propellant particle that has
the turbulence of muzzle flow [25]. Choi and Shin investigated the burnt. j is the mass fraction of the propellant particle that has
combusting process of the base bleed projectile, the detailed nu- burnt. c, l and m are the form characteristic parameters of the
merical method and discussion were presented [26]. In their propellant particle. cs and ls are the form characteristic parameters
research, the equations of the propellant components were when the surface of the propellant particle starts to decrease dur-
employed to calculate the parameters of the propellant gas based ing the burning process.
on the theory provided by Gordon and McBride [27]. Further (2). Burning function
investigation was conducted by Zhuo and Feng, the dynamic
overlapping grids method was applied to simulate the muzzle flow 8
u1 n
with a base bleed projectile, and the chemical kinetics model was dZ < p ðZ < Zk Þ
¼ e (2)
employed to calculate the chemical reactions in the combustion dt :
0ðZ  Zk Þ
region of the muzzle flow [28]. Qin and Zhang described the sec-
ondary combustion phenomenon in detail and analyzed the influ- where u1 is the burning coefficient. e is half of the thickness be-
ence of the precursor flow with an inert gas labeling method [29]. tween two perforations. n is the burning exponent. p is the mean
The methods and simplified models proposed in previous in- pressure in the barrel.
vestigations provide abundant references for the study on the (3). Motion equation
complicated muzzle flow. In this study, the entire shooting process
of the cannon equipped with a specific muzzle brake is simulated. dl
For an accurate result, the simulation is conducted by Fluent (Ansys v¼ (3)
dt
Inc.) finite volume code coupled with the interior ballistics model.
The chemical reaction kinetics model is employed to describe the where v is the velocity of the projectile. l is the distance the pro-
secondary combustion phenomenon, the chemical non- jectile has moved.
equilibrium Navier-Stokes equations are solved by the (4). Momentum equation
AUSM þ scheme and the finite-rate chemistry interaction model
[30]. The turbulence in the flow field is simulated by k ε model. dv
Spd  Fq  Ff ¼ fm (4)
Based on the result, the scale and the value of the muzzle flow are dt
measured, the conclusion is that the flows from the lateral slots of
the muzzle brake interact with each other, and more oxygen is where S is the inner section area of the barrel. pd is the gaseous
provided for the secondary combustion. The development and the pressure on the base of the projectile. Fq is the resistance in front of
mechanism of muzzle flash are presented by tracing the heat which the projectile. Ff is the frictional resistance. f is the minor work
is generated by the chemical reactions. Besides, the influence of the coefficient. m is the mass of the projectile.
muzzle brake structure is analyzed, the conclusion is that spacing (5). Energy equation
and the orientation angle between the lateral slots are essential
factors for the suppression of the muzzle flash. q
Spðl þ lj Þ ¼ f uj  fmv2 (5)
2

where f is the energy capacity of the propellant particle. u is the

total weight of the propellant. q ¼ g  1, g is the adiabatic expo-
nent. lj is the diameter shrunk length of the free volume of the
chamber. lj is defined as:
2. Mathematical models    
D 1
lj ¼ l0 1   D a  j (6)
2.1. Interior ballistics model rp rp

In order to obtain the muzzle flow accurately, the interior bal- where l0 ¼ VS0 , D ¼ Vu0 . a is the covolume of the propellant. rp is the
listics model is coupled with the simulation of the flow field to density of the propellant particle. D is the mean density in the
define the velocity of the moving projectile. The interior ballistics chamber volume. V0 is the total volume of the chamber.
model is based on several assumptions and simplifications of re- In the computing program of the interior ballistics model, all
ality conditions. It has been proved to be an accurate and efficient equations should be converted to the dimensionless equations:
model for calculating the interior ballistics parameters [31]. The
interior ballistics model consists of five equations: 8  rffiffiffiffiffiffi
>  q
>
> c 1 þ 2 lZ þ 3 mZ 2
pn ðZ < 1Þ
>
>
> 2B
(1). Propellant form function dj <  rffiffiffiffiffiffi
In this investigation, the propellant particle with seven ¼ cS Z q n (7)
dt >
> 1 þ 2lS p ð1  Z < Zk Þ
perforations is adopted. Based on the geometric law of >
> Z Z 2B
>
> k k
burning, the burning process of the propellant particle is :
0ðZ  Zk Þ
divided into three stages, which are identified by the value of
the parameter Z:

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 P.-f. Li, X.-b. Zhang / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

8 rffiffiffiffiffiffi
q n U ¼ ½rw1 ; rw2 ; …; rwn ; ru; rv; reT (13)
dZ < p ðZ < Zk Þ
¼ 2B (8)
dt : h iT
0ðZ  Zk Þ E ¼ rw1 u; rw2 u; …; rwn u; ru2 þ p; ruv; ðre þ pÞu
(14)
dl
¼v (9)
dt h iT
F ¼ rw1 v; rw2 v; …; rwn v; ruv; rv2 þ p; ðre þ pÞv
 
dv q Fq þ Ff fl0 q (15)
¼ pd  (10)
dt 2 2f u  T
vw vw vwn
    E v ¼ rD1 1 ; rD2 2 ;…; rDn ; txx ; txy ; utxx þ vtxy þ qx
dp 1 1 dj 1 þ q vx vx vx
¼ 1þD a p  pv (11)
dt ðl þ lj Þ rp dt l þ lj (16)

 T
where lj , l, t, p and v are dimensionless quantities and expressed as vw vw vwn
F v ¼ rD1 1 ; rD2 2 ;…; rDn ; txy tyy utxx þvtyy þqy
follows: vy vy vy
  (17)
D 1 l v p v
lj ¼ 1  D a j; l ¼ ; t ¼ j ; p ¼ ; v ¼ ;
rp rp l0 l0 fD vl 1h iT
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi H¼  rw1 v; rw2 v; …; rwn v; ruv; rv2 ; vðre þ pÞ
2f u S2 e 2 y
vl ¼ ; B¼ ðf DÞ2ð1nÞ :
qfm f ufmu21 (18)

These dimensionless equations are solved by the fourth-order

Runge-Kutta method. The interior ballistics model is coupled

 T
1 vw vw vwn
Hv ¼ rD1 1 ; rD2 2 ; …; rDn ; txy ; tyy  tqq ; utxy þ vtyy þ qy (19)
y vy vy vy

with the Fluent finite volume code as a User-Defined Function.

Then, the velocity of the moving boundary is calculated at every
time step. Q ¼ ½w_1 ; w_2 ; …; w_n ; 0; 0; 0T (20)

where r is the density of the propellant gas which is generated from

2.2. Governing equations of the flow field the combustion of the propellant particle. wi ði ¼ 1; 2; …; nÞ is the
mass fraction of gas species i. u is the velocity component in the
In this study, the computational model is assumed to be two- axial direction, v is the velocity component in the radial direction. e
dimensional axisymmetric. As the parameters during the interior is the total energy per unit of the gas mass. p is the static pressure of
ballistic process are determined by the interior ballistics model, the the gas. txx , txy , tyy and tqq are the viscous stresses, qx and qy are the
multi-species and chemical reactions are neglected. Therefore, the transmission of heat.w_ i ði ¼ 1; 2; …; nÞ is the generation rate of gas
Navier-Stocks equations are employed to simulate the development species i from the chemical reactions. These variables are expressed
of the precursor flow ahead of the projectile. After the projectile as follows:
leaves the muzzle, the propellant gas mixes with the air. The
chemical reactions depend on the temperature and the pressure of vu 2
the propellant gas. The Navier-Stokes equations with chemical re- txx ¼ 2m  mV,u (21)
vx 3
actions are employed to simulate the development of the muzzle
flow:
ð ð ð vv 2
vU tyy ¼ 2m  mV,u (22)
dV ðf ,nÞdS ¼ ðH þ Hv þ Q ÞdV (12) vy 3
vt
V S V
 
vu vv
where U is the vector of the conservation variables. f ¼ ðE  E v Þ, txy ¼ m þ (23)
vy vx
i þ ðF  F v Þ,j, E and F are the vectors of the convection fluxes, E v
and F v are the vectors of fluxes caused by viscidity. n is the normal
vector of the area element of the control volume. H and H v are the v 2
vectors of the source term caused by axial symmetry. Q is the vector tqq ¼ 2m  mV,u (24)
y 3
of the source term caused by chemical reactions. The equations are
as follows:

Please cite this article as: Li P-f, Zhang X-b, Numerical research on adverse effect of muzzle flow formed by muzzle brake considering secondary
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Table 1 0 1
H2-CO-O2 reactions.   Y
n Y
n
b ¼G @kf ;r h’j;r v’’j;r A
Detailed reaction A b E/(J,kmol1)
R i;r v’’i;r  v’i;r Cj;r  kb;r Cj;r (28)
j¼1 j¼1
H þ O2 4 OH þ O 1.2eþ17 0.91 0.691eþ8
H2 þ O4 OH þ H 1.5eþ7 2.0 0.316eþ8
O þ H2 O4 OH þ OH 1.5eþ10 1.14 0.722eþ8
where G is the effect of the third body on the reaction rate, which is
OH þ H2 4 H2 O þ H 1.0eþ8 1.6 0.138eþ8 neglected in this study. Cj;r is the molar concentration of species j in
O þ H þ M4 OH þ M 1.0eþ16 0 0 reaction r, h’j;r is the rate exponent for reactant species j in reaction r.
O þ O þ M4 O2 þ M 1.0eþ17 1.0 0
H þ H þ M4 H2 þ M 9.7eþ16 0.6 0 The forward rate constant of reaction r is given by the Arrhenius
H2 O þ M4 OH þ H þ 1.6eþ17 0 4.78eþ8 expression
M
O2 þ H2 4 OH þ OH 7.94eþ14 0 1.87eþ8
kf ;r ¼ Ar T br eEr =RT (29)
CO þ OH4 CO2 þ H 4.4eþ6 1.5 0.031eþ8
CO þ O þ M4 CO2 þ 5.3eþ13 0 0.19eþ8
M where Ar is the pre-exponential factor of reaction r, br is the tem-
CO þ O2 4 CO2 þ O 2.5eþ12 0 2.0eþ8 perature exponent of reaction r, Er is the active energy for reaction r,
R is the universal gas constant.
The backward rate constant of reaction r is expressed as follow:

kf ;r
kb;r ¼ (30)
Kr
Table 2
The species of the propellant gas and the mass fraction.
  P n

Species CO H2 CO2 H2O N2 DSr DHr patm  i¼1 v’’i;r v’i;r

Kr ¼ exp  (31)
Mass fraction 0.5138 0.0157 0.2153 0.1293 0.1259 R RT RT

where Kr is the equilibrium constant for reaction r, patm represents

atmospheric pressure (101325 Pa), DRSr and DRT Hr
represent the
changes in Gibbs free energy, and they are computed as follows:
vT Xn
vw
qx ¼ l þr Di hi i (25) n 
X S
vx vx DSr
i¼1 ¼ v’’i;r  v’i;r i
(32)
R R
i¼1

vT Xn
vw
qy ¼ l þr Di hi i (26) n 
X h
vy vy DHr
i¼1 ¼ v’’i;r  v’i;r i
(33)
RT RT
i¼1
where m is the viscosity coefficient, l is the thermal conductivity of
the propellant gas, Di is the diffusion coefficient of species i. where Si and hi are the entropy and enthalpy of the species i
evaluated at temperature T and atmospheric pressure.
In Table 1, A is the pre-exponential factor, b is the temperature
2.3. Chemical reaction kinetic model exponent, E is the activation energy of the reactions. M represents
the third body collision.
In this simulation, considering the major components and the
conditions under which the chemical reaction occurs, the chemical
3. Computational model
reaction kinetic model is expressed by 12 steps H2-CO-O2 reactions,
which are proposed by Gibeling and Buggeln [32]. The detail of this
In this study, the lateral slots of the muzzle brake are approxi-
model is shown in Table 1. The mass fraction of the species is given
mately circular and the influence of ground is neglected. Therefore,
in Table 2, which is consistent with the composition of the pro-
the two-dimension axial-symmetric model is used in this simula-
pellant gas. The processes of the reactions are solved by the finite-
tion. The scale and boundary conditions of the computational
rate chemical reaction package in Fluent finite volume code. In this
model are shown in Fig. 1. In order to provide a sufficient scale for
chemical reaction kinetic model, the general form of reaction r is as
the muzzle flow and the travel of the projectile, the total length of
follows:
the computational domain is L2 ¼ 2.7 m and the radius is
R ¼ 0.715 m. The length of the barrel is L1 ¼ 1.7 m, the length of the
X
n kf ;r X
n
projectile travel is 1.502 m, the caliber of the barrel is d ¼ 0.03 m.
v’i;r Mi # v’’i;r Mi (27)
i¼1 kb;r i¼1

where n is the number of the chemical species in the system, v’i;r is

the stoichiometric coefficient for reactant i in reaction r, Mi is the
symbol denoting the species i, v’’i;r is the stoichiometric coefficient
for product i in reaction r. kf ;r is the forward rate constant of re-
action r, kb;r is the backward rate constant of reaction r.
The chemical reactions in the muzzle flow are regarded as a
reversible reaction, the molar rate of creation of species i in reaction
r is as follows: Fig. 1. The simplified computational model.

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Fig. 2. Mesh model of the computational domain.

The boundary conditions are defined as annotations. All surfaces of Table 3

the solid structures are defined as “wall”. The boundaries of the The measured results and simulated results of the interior ballistic process.

computational domain outside the barrel are defined as “pressure Parameter Measured result Simulated result
outlet” [19,29]. Before the start of the projectile, the pressure of the
vm =ðm ,s1 Þ 890 895.4
area ahead of the projectile and the area outside the muzzle is pm =MPa 369.4 376.1
101325 Pa, the temperature is 300 K. The initial conditions and the
boundary conditions are derived from the assumptions of the
actual surrounding conditions [4,29,33]. In this simulation, the well as the dynamic mesh, and the velocity of the dynamic parts is
interior ballistics model works as a user-defined function program defined by the interior ballistics model. Furthermore, a grid sensi-
to define the velocity of the moving projectiles. When the base of tivity investigation is implemented. In this investigation, a refined
the projectile leaves the muzzle, the velocity of the projectile is mesh is built in the size of 1 mm  1 mm and a coarse mesh is built
895.4 m/s. The pressure and the velocity of the propellant gas in the in the size larger than 3 mm  3 mm as a contrast. The simulations
barrel are determined by the result from the interior ballistics are performed by the same initial conditions and solving methods,
model. the simulated value along the oblique sample line, as shown in
The mesh model is built with structured grids for computation. Fig. 5, are presented in Fig. 3. The results of the refined mesh and
As shown in Fig. 2, the size of the grids is restricted under 2 mm the mesh adopted in this study are nearly identical. Therefore, the
2 mm for computational accuracy. The dynamic mesh is introduced simulation results in this study are expected to be mesh
to deal with the movement of the projectile. As shown in Figs. 1 and independent.
2, the rectangular zones, which the motion of the projectile covers,
are solved by the dynamic layering method. In this method, the
base and the head of the projectile are specified as “rigid body”, as

Fig. 3. Simulated results of different mesh size.

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4. Results and discussion pressure is 1.81%. This shows that the simulated results are reliable
when the interior ballistics model is used to calculate the velocity of
4.1. Verification of the model the projectile.
According to the methods illustrated above and the verifications
In order to verify the reliability of the interior ballistics model, of the models, the reliable simulated results of the muzzle flow is
the simulated results are compared with the measured results [22]. obtained. In Fig. 4, the results of the simulation in this present study
In the simulation, the propellant particle with seven perforations is and the simulation implemented by Qin and Zhang [29] are
adopted, the impetus of the propellant is 932 kJ/kg, and the covo- compared in order to verify the accuracy of the chemical reaction
lume of the propellant gas is 0.001 m3/kg. The charge weight of the kinetic model. The contours of the muzzle flow near the projectile
propellant is 116 g, the mass of the projectile is 389 g, the caliber is when the projectile has left the muzzle for 0.4 ms are presented in
30 mm, and the length of the projectile travel is 1502 mm. All pa- Fig. 4(a) and (c). The temperature of the gases and the mass fraction
rameters are consistent with the experiment. of the species, which are influenced by the chemical reactions, are
The measured results and the simulated results are shown in in good agreement as shown in Fig. 4(b) and (d). The comparison
Table 3, where vm is the muzzle velocity of the projectile, pm is the indicates that the result of the secondary combustion simulated in
maximum breech pressure. Comparing the measured and the this study is reliable.
simulated results, the relative error in the muzzle velocity of the
projectile is 0.61%, the relative error in the maximum breech

Fig. 4. Verification of the chemical reaction kinetic model (a and b is the results of the simulation implemented by Qin and Zhang [29], c and d is the results of the simulation in this
study.).

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Fig. 5. Distribution of the muzzle flow velocity and pressure: (a) t 0 ¼ 0:05ms, (b) t 0 ¼ 0:12ms, (c) t 0 ¼ 0:20 ms (d) t 0 ¼ 0:35 ms.

4.2. Development of muzzle flow of the muzzle flow is presented. The jet flows sprayed from the
lateral slots carry enormous total energy, thus these flows are a
Based on the models, numerical methods and initial conditions threat to the objects in the rear of the muzzle.
illustrated above, the entire developing process and the data of the
muzzle flow are obtained. The developing process is presented in 4.3. Secondary combustion of propellant gas
Fig. 5, the results are shown in order of the relative time t’ which
indicates the flying time of the projectile since the projectile base During the developing process of the muzzle flow, the under-
leaves the barrel. It is obvious to distinguish the precursor flow and expended propellant gas interacts with the ambient air. A sec-
the propellant gas flow. The precursor flow is generated by the ondary combustion phenomenon comes up because the tempera-
compressed air in front of the projectile. As shown in Fig. 5(a), t 0 ¼ ture of the gases increases with the shock waves. The flash of the
0:05 ms, the first shock wave of the precursor flow diffuses at the secondary combustion is clearly to be observed as the temperature
speed about 1 Mach (the speed of sound is 340 m/s), but the pro- of the gases rises again.
pellant gas flow diffuses at a higher velocity. The maximum pres- Before the projectile leaves the barrel, the propellant burns in
sure of the shock wave in the outer space reaches 1.1 MPa. It can be the limited space and produces the propellant gas. The state of the
concluded from Fig. 5(b) and (c) that the shock waves caused by the propellant gas in the interior ballistic process is a negative oxygen
precursor flow and the propellant gas flow merge gradually. And, balance. The combustion occurs only when the combustible com-
the flows from the lateral slots of the muzzle brake interact with ponents, CO and H2, contact with O2 in the ambient air. In Figs. 6e9,
each other. Because of the interactions of the jet flows, the structure the contours of the strain rate, the temperature, the mass fraction of
of the muzzle flow becomes more complicated, and vortexes are oxygen and the heat of chemical reactions are shown in order of the
born near the interfaces between the jet flows. The conclusion is relative time t’. For a better understanding of the secondary com-
supported by the result shown in Fig. 5(d), the disordered frontier bustion, the zone, where the most violent chemical reactions

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Fig. 6. Distribution of fluid parameters at (t 0 ¼ 0:05 ms).

Fig. 7. Distribution of fluid parameters (t 0 ¼ 0:12 ms).

Fig. 8. Distribution of fluid parameters (t 0 ¼ 0:20 ms).

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Fig. 9. Distribution of fluid parameters (t 0 ¼ 0:35 ms).

Fig. 10. Results distributed along the oblique sample line (t 0 ¼ 0:05 ms).

Fig. 11. Results distributed along the oblique sample line (t 0 ¼ 0:12 ms).

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10 P.-f. Li, X.-b. Zhang / Defence Technology xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 12. Results distributed along the oblique sample line (t 0 ¼ 0:20 ms).

occurred, is marked with arrows in every figure. The arrow marks flows according to the contours of the strain rate and the contours
are coordinated with the dash line. The contour of the strain rate is of the pressure in Fig. 5. As shown in Figs. 7e9, the expansion re-
helpful to identify the whole region of the muzzle flow and the gion of the flow from the middle slot is much smaller than other
expansion region of the propellant gas. The contour of the mass flows. Furthermore, the combustion of the middle flow is more
fraction of oxygen shows the frontier between the propellant gas violent, as the contour of the heat of reaction shown in Fig. 7. The
and ambient air. The contour of the heat of reaction shows the same conclusion is presented in Fig. 8, the combustion is more
strength of the secondary combustion. The contour of the tem- violent when the flow sprayed from the first slot interacts with the
perature shows the result of the secondary combustion and the flow from the central vent. The gases are compressed because of the
flash region of the muzzle flow. interaction of the two flows, which is indicated by the contour of
Fig. 6 shows that the reactions start since the gas is released into the mass fraction of oxygen.
the outer space. In Figs. 7e9, it is indicated that the temperature of In this study, the secondary combustion phenomenon is illus-
the propellant gas decreases in the expansion region and then in- trated in detail by the chemical mechanism. As shown in
creases after the gas crosses the boundary of the expansion region. Figs. 10e13, the mass fraction of the species and the heat of
The secondary increase of the temperature comes up where the chemical reactions distributed along the oblique sample line are
propellant gas interacts with air, correlating with the chemical re- presented. The position of the oblique sample line is shown in
actions. Another conclusion drawn from Figs. 7e9 is that the flow Fig. 6. In the graphs of the heat of reaction, each peak value of the
sprayed from the middle slot is compressed by the adjacent jet curves indicates the strength of the combustion of the propellant

Fig. 13. Results distributed along the oblique sample line (t 0 ¼ 0:35 ms).

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Fig. 14. Pressure of the flows.

Fig. 16. Temperature of the flows.

Fig. 15. Heat of the reaction of the flows.

Fig. 17. Analysis of the sample data.

gas because the heat of the reaction represents the rate of the en-
ergy generated by the chemical reactions. According to the chem-
ical reaction kinetic model, Eq. (27) ~ (33), the rate of the reactions Fig. 14, the pressure of the compressed gases increases abnormally.
is affected by the temperature. Therefore, the maximum value of As a result, chemical reactions occur in these regions.
the heat of the reaction at different times is different, as shown in In Fig. 17, the data on the horizontal sample line is presented.
Figs. 10e13. The change of the temperature and the pressure roughly conforms
Another conclusion that can be drawn from the figures is that to the law of ordinary jet. The positions of the jet flow core regions
the mass fraction of CO and H2 decrease and the mass fraction of are marked as c1, c2 and c3. The positions labeled by line #1~ #6
CO2 increases in the same position. Comparing the maximum heat indicate the locations where the secondary combustion occurs.
of the reaction and the mass fraction of CO, the conclusion is that Especially, the compressed regions are labeled by line #2 and line
the strength of the combustion is also related to the mass fraction of #4. It implies that the heat of reactions generated in the com-
CO. In Figs. 10 and 11, the maximum heat of reaction is about pressed region is much higher than the other burning regions. As a
240 kW, where the mass fraction of CO is about 0.48. In Fig. 12, the consequence, the temperature of the gas rises sharply. With the
maximum heat of reaction is about 74 kW, where the mass fraction development of the muzzle flow, a large flash region is formed as
of CO is about 0.26. The same conclusion can be drawn from Fig. 13. shown in Figs. 8 and 9.

5. Conclusion
4.4. Interaction of the flows from lateral slots
Because of the specific structure of the muzzle brake, the jet
The conclusion drawn from Fig. 6 ~ 9 is that the flows sprayed flows sprayed from the lateral slots generate hazardous impinge-
from the lateral slots interact with each other and the secondary ments. The interactions of the jet flow from the lateral slots result in
combustion is more violent because of the effect of the interactions. more violent combustion in the primary stage of the muzzle flow.
To analyze the interactions of the flows, the magnified contours are Therefore, a more distinct muzzle flash is observed. Based on this
presented in Figs. 14e16. Because of the shocks of the high-pressure study, the conclusion is that the distance and the orientation angle
flows, the gases between the core regions of the flows are com- between the lateral slots need to be considered for the suppression
pressed. The compressed regions are marked by the rectangles in of the muzzle flash and impingement.

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Declaration of competing interest velocity on muzzle flow field characteristics. 2019. https://doi.org/10.12783/
ballistics2019/33149.
[17] Semenov I, Utkin P, Akhmedyanov I, Menshov I, Pasynkov P. Numerical
The authors declare that they have no known competing investigation of near-muzzle blast levels for perforated muzzle brake using
financial interests or personal relationships that could have high performance computing. International conference, parallel and distrib-
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. uted computing systems. PDCS 2013:281e9. 2013.
[18] Steward BJ, Perram GP, Gross KC. Modeling midwave infrared muzzle flash
spectra from unsuppressed and flash-suppressed large caliber munitions.
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Please cite this article as: Li P-f, Zhang X-b, Numerical research on adverse effect of muzzle flow formed by muzzle brake considering secondary
combustion, Defence Technology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2020.06.019