A Novel Approach for Warhead Fragments Velocity Measurement Based on Laser Screen

The velocity of warhead fragment is key criteria to determine its mutilation efficiency.We have designed an optoelectronic system to accurately measure the average velocity of warhead fragments.The apparatus including two parallel laser screens spaced apart at a known fixed distance for providing time measurement start and stop signals.The large effective screen area is formed by laser source,retro-reflector and large area photo-diode with a central hole.Whenever a moving fragment interrupts two optical screen,the corresponding photometers senses the event,due to partial obscuration of the incident energy.Experiments have been performed to measure velocity of the different kinds of projectiles and fragments within various size and velocity ranges,including 7.62 mm bullet shooting experiments,prefabricated steel-ball exploding experiments.They were proved that the system is adequate to measure the velocity of larger than 5 mm,less than 1 000 m/s in the range,when fixed trajectory,test the velocity of the projectile average relative deviation is less than 4.21%.The system can perform satisfactorily with a lot of advantages such as larger effective light screen area,quick response speed,low uncertainty,strong repetition and reliability,etc.