Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras

A Lift Separation Sabot for Kinetic Energy Projectiles

Categories for this Invention

Category: Sabot projectile assembly  in Defense Technologies

Industry: Defense and Aerospace Industry.

Application: Armored/Launching Vehicles.

Market: The global market size of Defense and Aerospace industry was worth around USD 750 billion in 2022 and is predicted to grow to around USD 1388 billion by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of roughly 8.2% between 2023 and 2030.

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Problem Statement

  • With the advancement in ammunition and armor technology, a need exists for increase in velocity of the ammunition to defeat the state-of-the-art armor systems.
  • Increase in velocity of the projectile can be achieved either by increasing the propellant mass or by reducing the parasitic sabot mass.
  • However, increase in pressure in the gun system is a direct consequence of adding more propellant mass which in turn demands development of expensive high pressure gun systems.
  • Also, the conventional kinetic energy rounds have almost reached a saturation velocity, a need therefore exists for an improved design to create a breakthrough in the state-of-the-art.
  • An ideal configuration for a sabot can be with less weight sabot that is configured separately from the projectile without disturbing the trajectory of the projectile.

Technology

  • A lift separation sabot for kinetic energy projectiles, comprising
  • A sabot using additional lifting surface (lift separation) close to the center of gravity to reduce the rotation of the sabot ensuring less mechanical contact between the projectile and the sabot.
  • Thereby improving the accuracy of the ammunition wherein the pressurization of the cavity under the center band using high speed free stream flow achieves lift separation in the kinetic energy projectiles.
  • From the figure 3 the distance (24) between center of gravity (21) and center of pressure(22) inside the annular cavity is very less compared to a conventional sabot.
  • Aerodynamic force acts on the outer circumference which leads to less moment arm wherein the pressure acts on the aerodynamic surfaces is equal to a stagnation pressure behind a normal shock due to the hypersonic speed of the assembly.
  • qThe sabot projectile assembly consists of three 120-degree sector sabots and a projectile and fin.

Key Features / Value Proposition

  • The Ministry of Defence had replied that for the present invention that the patent specifications is not considered prejudicial under Sec 35/36/39 of Indian Patents Act, 1970 to the Defence of India  in order to make the product commercially viable.
  • The resulting moment arm between center of pressure and center of gravity is less.
  • The distance between center of gravity and center of pressure inside the annular cavity is very less compared to a conventional sabot.
  • The front bore rider  utilize the advantage of a T-section.
  • Containing Minimal discard interference from sabot to the projectiles.
  • Ultra Light Weight Sabot.
  • High accuracy Ammunition.
  • High Performance of muzzle velocity & discard  without increasing the chamber pressure of the gun system

Questions about this Technology?

Contact For Licensing

sm-marketing@imail.iitm.ac.in
ipoffice2@iitm.ac.in

Research Lab

Prof. G.Rajesh

Department of Aerospace Engineering

Intellectual Property

  •  IITM IDF Ref. 1965

  • Patent No: IN 522091

Technology Readiness Level

TRL-3

Experimental Proof of concept.;

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