Professor of School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University, Australia. His research interests cover Industry 4.0, Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Engineering Materials and Structures (Metals and Composites), Multi-scale Modelling of Materials and Structures, Metal Forming and Metal Surface Treatment.
2024-02-24
2024-01-04
2023-11-02
Abstract—This study deals with a lightweight composite disruptor barrel used in a bomb disposal robot for a disposal operations of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Powered by a blank .50 BMG cartridge to produce a high-speed water jet to disengage the circuit of IED, the lightweight disruptor barrel consists of an aluminum liner for water and temperature resistance and a carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite (CFRP) as a shell for main load carrying. The composite shell is fabricated by a filament winding technique to ensure a good quality of CFRP. Due to difference in water jet and regular gun firing, the internal pressure of disruptor barrel needs to be estimated by using strain gauges and high-speed data acquisition device. Then, the design phase using finite element method (FEM) simulations with smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique and material damage criteria are performed in order to optimize the thickness of composite shell and liner geometries. Finally, a lightweight composite disruptor barrel is fabricated and tested as a validation. Index Terms—disruptor barrel, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite (CFRP), Finite Element Method (FEM), Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), filament winding Cite: V. Tangtongkid, K. Suwanpakpraek, and B. Patamaprohm, "Design of Lightweight Composite Barrel for Water Jet Disruptor Unit in Bomb Disposal Robot," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 138-144, March 2022. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.11.3.138-144
