We demonstrate a thulium-doped, mode-locked, all-fiber laser capable of operating in two generation regimes: dispersion-managed soliton and noise-like pulse (NLP). Employing a nonlinear optical loop mirror as an artificial saturable absorber, the oscillator generated optical pulses with a fundamental pulse repetition frequency of ~15.795 MHz. The total net dispersion of the laser cavity had a slightly anomalous group delay dispersion value of −0.016 ps². After appropriate adjustment of a polarization controller, bound states of a dispersion-managed soliton composed of three pulses with fixed soliton separations were also observed. NLP generation, tunable over 35 nm from 1943.5 to 1978 nm, was also presented in the same laser setup. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the generation of tunable NLPs in a mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser based on a nonlinear loop mirror saturable absorber.

Numerical and experimental investigations of armament systems are an important part of modern design processes. The presented paper reports problems that were encountered on the theoretical analysis of the performance of 35 mm anti-aircraft cannon and the way in which they were solved. The first problem concerns the application of results of closed vessel tests of used propellant in interior ballistics simulations. The use of a nonstandard form of the gas generation rate equation solved this problem. The second problem concerned the assessment of projectile–barrel interaction. The barrel resistance was estimated making use of finite element analysis. The third problem arose from the need to determine the heat transfer from propellant gases to the barrel. The employed formula for the heat exchange coefficient and 2D modelling of the heat conduction in the barrel provided the solution. Selected elements of the theoretical model were validated by shooting range experiments and data provided by the ammunition producer. Using the considered approach, crucial ballistic parameters (maximum propellant gas pressure and muzzle velocity) were estimated with an error of less than 6.0%, without application of additional fitting coefficients. The numerical estimation of the barrel external surface temperature provided a relative discrepancy with the experimental data lower than 6% and enabled the estimation of the critical burst length, equal to 14 shots.

One direction of modern artillery ammunition development is to reduce its vulnerability to the effects of mechanical and thermal factors during transport, storage and operation. For LOVA, the reduced vulnerability of propellant explosives intended for loading into this ammunition is usually connected with a higher thermal ignition impulse threshold and reduced burning rate under low propellant gas pressure. Since 2016, work has been under way at the Military University of Technology (Warsaw, Poland), intended to develop a Polish low-vulnerability gun propellant for 120 mm tank ammunition. It was established during the initial stage of research and analysis, that the JA-2 gun propellant (more specifically, its energy and ballistics characteristics and geometrical dimensions of grains) will be the reference propellant for the low-vulnerability propellant in development. To this end, the authors performed closed vessel tests with JA-2 propellant (with seven-perforated grains designated LO5460). This paper contains comparative (with the JA-2 propellant) results of closed vessel tests of several propellant blends developed by the MUT Faculty of New Technologies and Chemistry research team. Closed vessel tests of these propellant blends were performed in the Ballistics Laboratory of the MUT Institute of Armament Technology using a manometric chamber with a volume W0 = 200 cm3. Experimental tests and theoretical analyses were performed based on provisions of the standardisation agreement STANAG 4115 [6], American military standard MIL-STD 286C [7] and original test procedures developed based on [8, 9]. The tests focused mainly on the issue of correlation between the chemical composition of the given propellant blend with the expected values of energy and ballistics characteristics in connection with the required shape of propellant grains.

This paper presents the results of a comparative investigation into the effects of the ignition method on the ballistic properties of three types of propellants: a single-base propellant, a double-base propellant and a low vulnerability (LOVA) propellant, as determined via closed vessel tests (CVT). Conventional gunpowder ignition and plasma jet ignition methods were used. The influence of the ignition method on the values of the propellant characteristics obtained in CVT was analysed. It was found that the method of ignition has an influence on the values of propellant characteristics, determined in CVT. An analysis of the experimental form functions showed that plasma ignition is not a solution to the problems inherent to the process of determining the ballistic properties of propellants in which the burning process deviates from the geometric burning law.