Light Weight Container For Large Caliber Munitions - Phase II.

The Army currently uses a heavy steel rectangular container to store and transport large caliber munitions. This project is focused on designing and testing a new, efficient, light weight container for this purpose. The original metal container was designed to hold 2 munitions and weighed in excess of 100 pounds including the weight of the munitions. The new container, referred to as a monopack due to its design to hold only one munition, is cylindrical in shape and 30.5 inches long and weighs approximately 7 lbs. The preliminary design of the monopack during the first phase of the project incorporated lightweight composite materials for the body and a lightweight damage-resistant polymer for the end caps. A large amount of the Phase I effort was dedicated to prototype testing. For instance, moisture absorption tests, impact tests, and full scale impact drop tests were onducted on these composite cylinder test articles to check for penetration and damage resistance of the container and its endcaps. second phase effort was designed to follow up on the recommendations that were proposed after the results of the Phase I tests had been analyzed. Investigation of a higher failure strain polymer for the end caps was the most critical issue going into the second phase of this project. Three possible candidates were chosen based upon the shortcomings of the material that was used in Phase I and several discussions with materials experts about the material properties that were required to surpass the high impact drop tests. Also the thread design and the gasket seal of the top cap were modified such that the top cap could be screwed on with fewer turns an he gasket would seal the container without being damaged during an inadvertent impact. The details of the modifications, fabrication, and testing of the container for the Phase II effort are described in this report.