Hello! I'm a guy who always needs to know how/why things work. If there are any members who are also members of the "gun culture", as I am, there are quite a few questions which have troubled me for years.

 

One is the gas dynamics of small arms propellant (powder). Does anyone have knowledge of about when the gas pressure peaks when, say, a typical rifle is fired? Is it after the projectile (bullet) leaves the shell casing within the arm's chamber? Certainly, it must be before the bullet travels any appreciable part of the barrel's length.

 

Another question: Smokeless powder "burns" at a rate dependant on the pressure surrounding it. But, the constituents, typically guncotton or nitroglycerin, or a mixture of both, can be "detonated", that is exploded, by an appropriate shock. How then do the dynamics of smokeless burning in a gun barrel avoid detonating? Detonation, as I understand it, is an uncontrolled dissociation of a compound into more simple compounds, or elements.

 

Thanks in advance for any input! Imp.

that a look here: http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5487798-description.html

 

this may help with Some of it.