Defence Technology 14 (2018) 119e125

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Defence Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/dt

Numerical simulation and optimized design of cased telescoped

ammunition interior ballistic
Jia-gang Wang a, b, Yong-gang Yu a, *, Liang-liang Zhou a, Rui Ye a
a
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China
b
Chongqing Wangjiang Industry Co., Ltd, Chongqing, 400071, China

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

Article history: In order to achieve the optimized design of a cased telescoped ammunition (CTA) interior ballistic design,
Received 1 August 2017 a genetic algorithm was introduced into the optimal design of CTA interior ballistics with coupling the
Received in revised form CTA interior ballistic model. Aiming at the interior ballistic characteristics of a CTA gun, the goal of CTA
7 November 2017
interior ballistic design is to obtain a projectile velocity as large as possible. The optimal design of CTA
Accepted 27 November 2017
Available online 2 December 2017
interior ballistic is carried out using a genetic algorithm by setting peak pressure, changing the chamber
volume and gun powder charge density. A numerical simulation of interior ballistics based on a 35 mm
CTA firing experimental scheme was conducted and then the genetic algorithm was used for numerical
Keywords:
Cased telescoped ammunition
optimization. The projectile muzzle velocity of the optimized scheme is increased from 1168 m/s for the
Interior ballistics initial experimental scheme to 1182 m/s. Then four optimization schemes were obtained with several
Gunpowder independent optimization processes. The schemes were compared with each other and the difference
Optimization genetic algorithm between these schemes is small. The peak pressure and muzzle velocity of these schemes are almost the
same. The result shows that the genetic algorithm is effective in the optimal design of the CTA interior
ballistics. This work will be lay the foundation for further CTA interior ballistic design.
© 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction The sketch of a typical CTA structure is shown in Fig. 1. It can be

Cased telescoped ammunition (CTA) is a kind of charge structure
with a projectile embedded in the cartridge case. Compared with
concepts using conventional ammunition, the length of CTA is small
and the appearance of CTA is simple [1,2]. Because of its unique
structure, the feeding mechanism is simple and the feeding dis-
tance is much shorter. Thus, ammunition storage space can be
effectively used. Compared with the conventional ammunition of
the same caliber, the overall performance of CTA is more superior.
Due to the superior performance of CTA, many countries, such as
USA [3e5], England and France [6,7], have launched a study of CTA
technology and obtained many achievements in this field. For
example, the 45M911 45 mm CTA gun is developed by France. The
40 mm cased telescoped weapon system (CTWS) is developed by a
joint Anglo-French project. These results fully illustrate the feasi-
bility of the CTA weapon system used for equipment.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: 410403809@qq.com (J.-g. Wang), yygnjust801@163.com
(Y.-g. Yu), zllnjust@163.com (L.-l. Zhou), yearutch@163.com (R. Ye).
Peer review under responsibility of China Ordnance Society.
seen that there is a big difference in the structure between CTA and
conventional ammunition. Thus the interior ballistic process is
different from the conventional ammunition. In the process of CTA
interior ballistic, the fast burning propellant in the auxiliary
chamber at the bottom of the projectile is ignited by the primer
after the primer is struck. The propellant gases, generated by the
fast burning propellant, drive the projectile to move forward along
the control tube. Then the projectile is propelled into the barrel
with a certain velocity. At this time, due to the special structure of
CTA, the main charge around the center igniting primer and con-
trolling tube is ignited and a large volume of gas is generated to
propel the projectile along the barrel until the projectile exists the
muzzle.
In order to achieve successful shooting, there is a need for a
reasonable design of CTA interior ballistics because of the particu-
larity of CTA interior ballistics. The interior ballistic design, usually
based on the interior performance requirements and design
indices, is to determine the structure elements and loading pa-
rameters of the gun system. If a conventional engineering design
method is used, the CTA interior ballistic scheme maybe feasible,
but it can't be ensured that the scheme is optimal. In recent years,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2017.11.006
2214-9147/© 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
120 J.-g. Wang et al. / Defence Technology 14 (2018) 119e125

Fig. 1. The sketch of CTA structure.

the intelligent optimization algorithm has been applied to variable h .
.  i

fields. Among it, the genetic algorithm is most widely used. In this
paper, we will apply a genetic algorithm to produce an optimal
design by taking a 35 mm CTA interior ballistic model as an
example.
2. Interior ballistic model of CTA
The object of CTA interior ballistic design is the interior ballistic
process. Thus interior ballistic equations are used for the design [8].
In this paper, we take a 35 mm CTA as the research object and
establish a CTA zero-dimensional interior ballistic model with
combining the characteristics of interior ballistic process [9e11].
The interior ballistic process can be divided into two stages
based its characteristics, which are first ignition stage and second
ignition stage. The first ignition stage mainly involves the com-
bustion of fast burning propellant and the interior ballistic equa-
tions are as follows
ljb ¼ l0b 1  Db rpb  Db ab  1 rpb jb ; l0b ¼ V0b =S; Db
¼ ub =V0b
(6)
Among that, 4b is the secondary power coefficient of the first
ignition stage, m is the mass of the projectile, ljb is equivalent
length of the free volume of the first stage, fb, ab, rpb, ub and Db is
the gunpowder force, covolume, density, charge quantity and
charge density of fast burning propellant respectively, qb ¼ g-1 and
g is specific heat ratio, V0b and l0b is the chamber volume and
equivalent length of the fast burning propellant respectively.
The interior ballistic equations of the second ignition stage are
as follows
Burning equation of the gun powder: jb ¼ cb Zb 1 þ lb Zb ; j
¼ cZð1 þ lZÞ
(7)

Shape functions of gun powder: jb ¼ cb Zb ð1 þ lb Zb Þ (1) dZb

Burning equation of the gun powder:
Among that, jb is the burned percentage of fast burning pro- dt
8u
pellant, cb and lb are shape characteristic quantity of fast burning  < 1 n
p Z<1
ðu1b =e1b Þpnb Zb < 1 dZ
propellant, Zb is the burned relative thickness ¼ ; ¼ e1 (8)
0 Zb > 1 dt :
0 Z>1
dZb u1b pnb
Burning equation of the gun powder: ¼ (2)
dt e1b dv
Motion equations of the projectile: Sp  Fr ¼ 4m (9)
Among that u1b, nb, and e1b is the burning rate coefficient, dt
burning rate-pressure exponent and arc thickness of the fast
burning propellant respectively dl
Travel equation: ¼v (10)
dt
dv
Motion equations of the projectile: Sp ¼ m (3)

dt q
Energy equation: Sp l þ lj ¼ f uj  4mv2 (11)
Among that, m is the mass of projectile, v is the velocity of the 2
projectile, S is the maximum cross-section area of the projectile, p is " ! #
the pressure in the chamber. D 1 V u
lj ¼ l0 1  D a j ; l0 ¼ 0 ; D ¼ (12)
rp rp S V0
dl
Travel equation: b ¼ v (4)
dt where, j and Z is the burned percentage and burned relative
Among that, lb is the travel of the projectile in the controlling thickness of main charge propellant respectively, c and l is the
tube. shape characteristic quantity of the main charge propellant, u1, n, e1

 . is the burning rate coefficient, burning rate-pressure exponent and
Energy equation: Sp ljb þ l ¼ f ub jb  qmv2 2 (5) arc thickness of the main charge propellant respectively, l is the
travel of the projectile in the barrel, p is the average pressure
behind the projectile, Fr is the engraving resistance, 4 is the
 J.-g. Wang et al. / Defence Technology 14 (2018) 119e125
Fig. 2. The flow chart of the simulation process.
secondary power coefficient of the second stage, lj is equivalent
length of the free volume of the second stage, V0 and l0 is the
chamber volume and equivalent length of main charge propellant,
respectively, f, u, D, a and rp is the gunpowder force, main charge
quantity, charge density, covolume and density of the main charge.
Fig. 2 shows the flow chart of the simulation process. As the
figure shows, at the beginning of the simulation, the initial value of
the interior ballistic parameters is calculated according to the
loading parameters. After that, loop calculation of the interior
ballistic parameters is conducted with the first stage equations
until the projectile exists the control tube. After the projectile enter
into the gun tube, loop calculation is conducted with the second
stage equations until the projectile exists the gun tube. Finally, the
calculation results are outputted, including the velocity and
pressure.
Table 1
The relationship between biological genetic concepts and genetic algorithm concepts.
Biological genetic
Individual
The survival
Chromosome
Gene
Adaptability
Group
Mating
Variation
121
3. Optimization
3.1. Genetic algorithm
The main idea of the genetic algorithm is the law in the natural
field, which is the survival of the fittest [12e14]. This algorithm is to
establish objective function and constraint conditions for solving
the problem. The genetic algorithm will encode the scheme pa-
rameters and then continue the selection, crossover and mutation
of the population of candidate solutions. By constantly updating the
population, the solution to the problem is gradually evolved to an
optimum. Table 1 shows the relationship between biological ge-
netic concepts and genetic algorithm concepts.
The main components of the genetic algorithm include the
group, the coding method, the selection strategy and the genetic
operation.
(1) In the genetic algorithm, the group is composed of a certain
number of individuals, and each individual corresponds to a
solution. The individuals in original group are randomly
generated, and the size of the group is a linear multiple of the
length of the code.
(2) Coding is the basic work of the genetic algorithm, which
determines relationship between the solutions and the ge-
netic codes.
(3) The selection strategy in the genetic algorithm is choosing
the most adaptable individuals in the group, which are
evaluated by the adaptive function.
(4) The most important part of the genetic algorithm is the ge-
netic operation, including mating and variation operation.
Fig. 3 shows the flow chart of the optimization process. The
genetic algorithm firstly needs to encode the optimal problem and
construct the fitness function. Then the evolution usually starts
from a population of randomly generated individuals, and is an
iterative process, with the population in each iteration called a
generation. In each generation, the fitness of every individual in the
population is evaluated. The individuals are stochastically selected
from the current population based on the fitness. Those more fit
individuals are recombined and mutated to form a new generation.
The fitness of the new generation is closer to the optimal solution
than that of the initial population by comparative selection and
code update. The solutions of the population will approach to the
optimal solution by iterations of the algorithm. The solution of the
last generation can be regarded as the optimal solution to the
problem.
3.2. Determination of optimal variables
In the process of interior ballistic design, there is some influence
of the gun structure and charge conditions on the interior ballistic
characteristics. Thus, more variables are involved in the CTA
Genetic algorithm
A solution
An optimization solution
Coding of the solution
The eigenvalues of the code
Value of the adaptive function
Selected set of solutions
Producing a new set of solutions based on the crossover principle
The process of changing a certain component of the code
122 J.-g. Wang et al. / Defence Technology 14 (2018) 119e125

Fig. 3. The flow chart of the optimization process.

optimal design, such as the length of barrel, propellant chamber Table 2

volume, charge quantity and charge shape of the propellant. The Charge parameters of CTA.

variables selected should be mutual independent and have most Parameters Value Parameters Value
direct and biggest influence on the scheme. The propellant cham- ub/g 1 u/g 320
ber volume and charge quantity have considerable influence on the u1b 2  108 u1 1.75  108
peak pressure of the gun and muzzle velocity of the projectile. So nb 0.83 n 0.83
we will select those two parameters as design variables and rp/(kg$m3) 1600 f/(J$kg1) 980000
mq/kg 0.55 p0b/MPa 2.5
conduct an optimal design.
V0/m3 3.45  104 S/m2 9.621  104
l1/m 0.09 lg/m 3.29
3.3. Constraint conditions

In the process of interior ballistic design, the constraint condi- Table 3

tions are determined based on the material of the gun, ammunition Comparison between simulation results and experiment data.
charge condition and related prior art. The usually used constraint
vg/(m$s1) pm/MPa
conditions in the interior ballistic design are peak pressure,
chamber volume and charge density. The peak pressure is an Experiment 1160 320
Calculated 1168.5 321.8
important index in the interior ballistic design. To determine the
peak pressure should not only consider the interior ballistic per-
formance but also consider the factors of gun barrel material
strength. The size of the chamber volume will affect the perfor- 4. Result and analysis
mance of artillery. If the size of chamber volume is too large, it will
occupy larger space and apply adverse effects on other features of 4.1. Numerical simulation of 35 mm CTA interior ballistic
the weapon system. The charge density is influenced by the charge
shape and density of the propellant, and should be chosen ac- Numerical simulation is conducted based on an initial scheme of
cording to the current state of art. 35 mm CTA firing experiment and then an optimal design is carried
As mentioned above, the boundary conditions of the design out. The charge parameters of the CTA experiment is shown in
variables were chamber volume V02[0.33, 0.41]dm3 and main Table 2.
charge density D2[0.75, 0.95]kg/dm3. The upper limit of the peak The comparison between numerical results and experiment
pressure is set to be 322 MPa as a constraint. data is shown in Table 3. The maximum relative error of projectile

3.4. Objective function

Table 4
Genetic algorithm parameters.
There are many constraints used to satisfy the schemes, but not
of all are optimal. Thus we need an objective function to evaluate Parameters Value
the quality of the scheme. The main goal of the interior ballistic population size 50
optimal design is to obtain a larger muzzle velocity of projectile number of iterations 20
with pressure as small as possible. Thus we select the muzzle ve- probability of performing crossover 0.8
probability of mutation 0.1
locity of projectile as the optimized objective function.
 J.-g. Wang et al. / Defence Technology 14 (2018) 119e125 123

Fig. 4. The evolution of individuals during iterations.

muzzle velocity and peak pressure is 0.68% and 0.56%, respectively.
The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental
results, which validates the model.
4.2. Results of optimal design
The parameters of the genetic algorithm adopted in the calcu-
lation were shown in Table 4.
The convergence process of genetic algorithm of generations is
shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen that the design variables of chamber
volume V0 and charge density D, constraint condition of peak
pressure pm and objective function of vg oscillate largely in the early
stage of the iterations. However, the oscillation decreases gradually
as the genetic algorithm continues. Due to the mutation of some
individuals during the generation in the convergence process, the
design variables of chamber volume V0 and charge density D,
constraint condition of peak pressure pm and objective function of
vg mutate occasionally in the convergence process. However, it
doesn't affect the convergence of optimization results. Thus, the
optimal design of obtaining largest muzzle velocity of CTA projec-
tile is V0 ¼ 0.3869 dm3, D ¼ 0.8728 g/cm3 and the optimized initial
velocity of CTA is vg ¼ 1182 m/s.
Table 5
Optimization results.
Four independent optimal calculations were carried out and the
optimal results of each optimization were shown in Table 5. As can
be seen in Table 5, the optimal results of chamber volume V0,
charge density D and peak pressure were in the constraint range.
The optimal results meet the actual situation and the design re-
quirements and were better than that of the initial scheme.
Comparing of the four optimal results, it can be seen that the results
of each calculation are not the same. The deference between the
optimal results is due to the existence of some certain randomness
of the genetic algorithm in iterations. At first, the individuals of the
initial population were randomly generated. Then, the individuals,
which were chose to recombined, were selected randomly. The
location of the coding recombination is also stochastic. In addition,
whether the individual is to mutate and the location of coding
mutation is also random. Though a difference of each optimization
exists, the difference is small and the results are basically the same.
At the same time, the difference in the peak pressure and projectile
muzzle velocity of each optimization is very small. The optimiza-
tion results are constantly approaching to the optimal results,
which imply that using a genetic algorithm to optimize the interior
ballistic design is feasible.
4.3. Comparison of optimized scheme with the experimental
scheme

V0/dm3 D/(kg$dm3) vg/(m$s1) pm/MPa The numerical results of the interior ballistic characteristics of
0.3888 0.8705 1182.5 321.9 the last optimized scheme in Table 4 were compared with that of
0.3870 0.8727 1182.1 322.0 the initial scheme, which were shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.
0.3868 0.8729 1182.0 321.9 From Fig. 5, it can be seen that pressure change of the pressure
0.3898 0.8694 1182.6 322.0
curve of the optimized scheme is small at the early stage of the
124 J.-g. Wang et al. / Defence Technology 14 (2018) 119e125
Fig. 5. Comparison of pressure.
Fig. 6. Comparison of velocity.
interior ballistic process. This is because of a smaller charge density
than that of the initial scheme. However, the charge quantity of the
optimized scheme is much larger. At the late stage of the interior
ballistic process, as the space behind the bottom of projectile in-
creases, the influence due to the bigger chamber volume gradually
decreases. The pressure of the optimized scheme would exceed
that of the original scheme. Thus the pressure change of the opti-
mized scheme is relatively gentler.
From Fig. 6, in the process of projectile motion, the projectile
velocity increases slower, because the pressure behind the bottom
of projectile is relatively small. At the late stage, the pressure
behind the bottom of projectile is relatively large, the acceleration
rate is larger. Comparing the two schemes, the total impulse ob-
tained in the whole interior ballistic process of the optimized
scheme is larger at almost the same peak pressure. The muzzle
velocity of the projectile increases by 14 m/s. The new scheme
obtained by the genetic algorithm is more optimal than the original
one. It's feasible to optimize the CTA interior ballistic design using a
genetic algorithm.
5. Conclusions
A two stage ignition model of CTA interior ballistics was estab-
lished using the classical interior ballistic theory. A numerical
simulation was carried out based on the experimental condition
and the calculated results are in good agreement with the experi-
mental data.
An optimal design of CTA interior ballistics was established
using a genetic algorithm. The best optimal scheme is obtained by
setting the peak pressure, setting the present range of chamber
volume V0 and charge density D.
Four different optimized results were obtained by four inde-
pendent optimal calculations. The difference between each scheme
is small and the calculated performance parameters are similar. The
optimal results constantly approach the best optimal solution.
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