A multiple-laser flash shadowgraphy system has been innovatively designed and developed to study the terminal effects of projectiles. The system has been designed based on modulated laser diodes operated at low voltage and current. In order to study the ballistics effects of small arms, an exposure time of the order of a few hundreds ns and a delay time of the order of a few tens of µs are needed. An ultrashort pulse generator has been developed to provide the exposure and delay time pulses. The developed system has been integrated with a field lens assembly and camera assembly. To record the shadowgraphs, a target is placed near the center of the field lens and a bullet is fired from a fixed gun. The system is described, and experimental results and conclusions are reported.
The design and construction of a system to accurately determine the speed of a projectile (bullet) by measuring the time of flight between two parallel laser screens is described. Each screen is formed by a laser source and a set of prisms. At the detection end of each of the screens, a collector lens focuses the incident laser light beam onto a photodetector. The collector lens and detector are kept in a recess so that no stray or ambient light falls on the photodetector. Whenever a projectile crosses either of the screens, the corresponding photodetector senses the event, due to partial or full obscuration of the incident energy. An electronic circuit is used to accurately record the time when the projectile crosses each screen, and the time interval gives the time of flight. The distance between the screens being known, the velocity is displayed on a computer screen. Because a single collimated beam of light generates the entire optical curtain, the reduction in incident energy at the photodetector plane is independent of the entry point of the projectile into the screen. Due to the baffling of the photodetector from ambient light, the optical screens can be used at indoor or outdoor ranges equally effectively.
Through laser initiation of explosives offers many advantages like controlled threshold energy over wide range, replacement of complicated safety arming mechanisms to simple and better system, immunity to RF/EMI environment etc, but there is greater difficulty to build detonator for all purpose applications and regular field trials. The challenges are to understand the interaction of laser radiation or its induced plasma with explosives, launching and transmission of high power laser beam, coupling and focussing to desired target area. This paper looks into the details of those facts.
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