Experimental analysis and wear modeling for mechanical components of a typical rail launcher

One of the most important design considerations for rocket launchers is its maintainability and one of the most important parameter which affects the maintainability is wear in launchers. Therefore, for predicting the life-time of a launcher, wear should be investigated beside other parameters such as fatigue etc. In this study, experimental and modeling of dry sliding wear in some mechanical parts of a typical rail launcher, used in helicopters, were made. Firstly, measurements about the material loss, which is generated during firing of missiles, were made on launcher components which have interfaces with missile. Then, these results were used to simulate the wear phenomenon by using a commercial finite element program, ANSYS. By the help of finite element model, crack initiation period depending on wear is tried to be evaluated without making additional firing tests.