Modeling of Ammunition Dynamic Pressure Measurement Chain in Ballistic Tests

Abstract

The use of piezoelectric transducers for internal dynamic pressure measurements in ammunition testing provides a significant advantage in the development and performance analysis of weapons and ammunition. Knowledge of the electrical characteristics of the dynamic pressure measurement chain, which includes the piezoelectric transducer and the charge amplifier, is a relevant condition for the design of interior ballistics pressure measurement systems. Thus, this study aims to characterize and model a piezoelectric transducer and its associated charge amplifier. First, the piezoelectric transducer was characterized using impedance analysis and modeled using a least squares curve-fitting tool, according to the Butterworth–Van Dyke model. Next, the charge amplifier was characterized through response analysis based on known inputs and modeled using LTSpice simulation techniques and the least squares curve-fit tool. Consequently, a measurement chain model is presented and simulated for two cases with different impulse signals. The first impulse signal was obtained from an interior ballistics computer simulation, and in the second case, it was considered the negative step signal characteristic of the calibration of piezoelectric transducers by means of dead weight. From the simulations, it was possible to verify the effectiveness of the model, which provided results with a low error in relation to the original pressure curve, and its applicability is demonstrated by the result of the simulation of the pressure variation in the calibration, where the attenuation of the signal can be visualized as the characteristic of the input curve changes.