The shock and spalling behavior of a compositionally complex high strength low-alloy steel (HSLA) was studied using plate impact testing. The free surface velocity of the specimen in the range of 194~938 m/s was measured by a displacement interferometer system for any reflector (DISAR). The Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL), spallation fracture and microstructural evolution of the HSLA under an impact stress of 3.04~18.66 GPa were analyzed. Shock Hugoniots were obtained from the measured particle velocities and calculated shock velocities. The velocity curves show clear signs of HEL and velocity fallback, indicating a transition from elastic to plastic and spalling behavior. When the impact velocity exceeds 757 m/s, the particle velocity rises to the peak and then increases again, indicating that an α→ε phase transition occurred, with a threshold of 13.51 GPa. It was found that the impact velocity is linearly related to the particle velocity of the HSLA. As the impact stress increased, the HEL remained within the range of 1.32~1.50 GPa, while the spalling strength presented an upward trend with the increasing impact stresses. Metallographic analysis shows that the impact failure is dominated by brittle fracture at lower velocities, while more ductile fracture occurs at higher velocities.

The installation of muzzle brake changes the flow direction of propellant gas, which leads to a decline in the recoil force but an increase in the muzzle flow noise of the side rear. Therefore, the coordination between high efficiency and low harm of muzzle brake is one of the factors limiting its optimization. To address this problem, a numerical method for evaluating the comprehensive performance of muzzle brake targeting muzzle brake efficiency and impulse noise is proposed in the present study. The two performance indexes are calculated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-computational aeroacoustics (CAA) coupled method. Afterwards, a corresponding experiment is conducted to verify its feasibility. Furthermore, the comprehensive performance of muzzle brakes with three different structures are analysed based on the two indexes obtained by the proposed numerical method. The results reveal that both indexes can be influenced by the structure of muzzle brakes. The increased braking efficiency is almost accompanied by increased impulse noise, but the functional relation is not linear dependence. Thus, the comprehensive performance can be improved by optimization of the structure. The evaluation method proposed in this paper has theoretical significance for optimizing muzzle brakes, which is of great engineering value.