Design and Fabrication of a Firing Impulse Generator for Large Caliber Guns
Primary Information
Domain
DRDO
Project No.
4269
Sanction and Project Initiation
Sanction No: IMPRINT NOTE
Sanction Date: 42833
Project Initiation date: 42744
Project Duration: 18
Partner Ministry/Agency/Industry
MOD/DRDO/OFMK
Role of partner:Design review, provision of facilities for testing, fabricating important components on an as needed basis.
Support from partner:Very good.
Principal Investigator
Nachiketa Tiwari
Indian Institute of Technology KANPUR
Host Institute
Co-PIs
J. Ramkumar
Indian Institute of Technology KANPUR
Scope and Objectives
There has been a long standing need for a firing impulse generator capable of producing pressures in the range of thousands of atmospheres. This will enable Indian ordnance factories to quickly test barrel designs locally for fatigue, and avoid taking tons of test equipment to distant and heavily booked proving grounds at Balasore/Pokhran. Further, a full life-cycle test of such barrels is currently cost-prohibitive due to need of ammunition worth crores of rupees. Hence, such tests are rarely conducted. This device will eliminate these costs and enable factories to launch their fully-tested made-in-India guns internationally. The project is two-staged. In the first stage the aim is to fabricate a scaled down model, to prove out proof-of-concept, calculations, and also identify potential failure points of the concept. In the second stage we will develop the actual working prototype. Thus, the objective of the project is: Develop a Pressure Impulse Generator for Producing Operating Pressures in Large Caliber Gun Barrels.
Deliverables
Ideation and development of integrated model Detailed design for a 100 MPa system Protoyping for a 100 MPa system Validation of 100 MPa prototype Detailed design for a max. pressure system Prototyping of a full scale model Validation of prototype generating full scale pressure Installation and operationalization
Videos
Scientific Output
Project on time. All deliverables have been met as per schedule. The 1st prototype (100 MPa) design has been fabricated and tested rigorously. It is working as per expectations (based on simulations). Currently, we have completed the final design, and are about to kick off its fabrication.

Results and outcome till date
Project on time. All deliverables have been met as per schedule. The 1st prototype (100 MPa) design has been fabricated and tested rigorously. It is working as per expectations (based on simulations). Currently, we have completed the final design, and are about to kick off its fabrication.

Societal benefit and impact anticipated
Ordnance factories will save very significant amount of resources for fatigue testing of barrels. Currently, they have not tested any large caliber gun barrels for fatigue. This device will make it possible and will save them over Rs. 100 crores per design.
Next steps
Fabrication of large pressure design.
Publications and reports
Two M. Tech. Theses
Patents
Will file for patents post kicking of fabrication of final prototype. Expect to file patents for 15+ features in the design of pressure pulse generator, as well as the gas gun.
Scholars and Project Staff
LIST of CURRENT PROJECT STAFF
Girijesh Mathur
Awaneesh Kumar
Ritesh Bhattacharya
Sharad Kumar
Manmohan Singh
Ramashankar Yadav
LIST OF CURRENT STUDENTS/SCHOLARS
Madhav Londhe Shubham
Challenges faced
Availability of very high strength material from MIDHANI. This can cause schedule delays. We are exploring ways to get around this hurdle.
Other information
None.
Financial Information
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Total sanction: Rs. 33302500.00
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Amount received: Rs. 21777000.00
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Amount utilised for Equipment: Rs. 8093972.00
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Amount utilised for Manpower: Rs. 2919792.00
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Amount utilised for Consumables: Rs. 2453520.00
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Amount utilised for Contingency: Rs. 2629792.00
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Amount utilised for Travel: Rs. 309567.00
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Amount utilised for Other Expenses: 0.00
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Amount utilised for Overheads: Rs. 3629500.00
Equipment and facilities
High speed camera for monitoring functioning of pressure pulse generator, instrumentation for recording data.