Talk:Caliber (artillery)

Rubbish

"In artillery, caliber is the measurement of the length of a gun relative to its diameter." - this is rubbish. The article Caliber explains adequayely the different usages of calibre/caliber to measure the diamter of the bore, and calibres/calibers as a measurement of the bore or barrel's length. Rcbutcher (talk) 09:35, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

This has now been modified to the more correct : "In artillery, caliber is the diameter of a barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length.". Rcbutcher (talk) 04:50, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

"LNN redirects here" ?

See Talk:Lnn - thewolfchild 06:45, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

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Speculative Design Discussion

There are at least two paragraphs attempting with varying success to relate historical choices of caliber to the barrel stress, gas pressure, acceleration of the projectile versus position or time, etc. The discussion initially relates the introduction of specific propellants to caliber, but fails to follow through. Muzzle velocity is limited to a fraction of propellant flame velocity. 20th century propellants have much higher, not lower, flame velocities than gunpowder.

The discussion ignores metallurgical advances that made higher calibers useful for achieving higher muzzle velocities. The metallurgy of large weapons is often unavailable, but the maximum pressure rating of oil and gas pipe made at roughly the same time is available and an adequate proxy. Before 1880 the available maximum ultimate yield strength of steel and cast iron foundry products will serve instead.

There appear to be competing lines of thought based on maximum thermodynamic efficiency (maximum energy efficiency is achieved by early combustion and expanding the gas as slowly and completely as possible) and a nearly developed conceptual grasp of maximum muzzle velocity vs barrel weight (rate of combustion gas production chosen to produce constant pressure over the barrel length). Every scientist and engineer is familiar with thermodynamics, but it isn't germane to this topic at the level of detail appropriate to a Wikipedia article. To be clear, maximum thermodynamic efficiency has no place in this article. Large weapons are designed for their lethality, not economical operation. There are other reasons why a constant barrel pressure isn't used.

There should be citeable sources for a straightforward explanation of gas pressure vs length vs barrel stress. There may be fewer sources to cite for why deviating from a constant pressure profile improves accuracy and how to account for friction and structural stress in the barrel and barrel life. (expelled with too much pressure causes wobbling - see high speed film in te public domain; very long barrels droop from their own weight, maximizing range at a specified accuracy in linear (not angular) error determines and ideal barrel (and gas pressure) taper geometry.

A table with the propellants and steel used in various historical weapons should be informative. Columns with year, bore, caliber, propellant name, flame velocity, the maximum rated pressure for 6" steel pipe, and any notable design requirements or innovations, e.g. barrel step/taper, muzzle gas vents, etc.--PolychromePlatypus 22:14, 7 May 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by PolychromePlatypus (talk • contribs)

Why is this its own article?

Caliber is the same thing in small arms as in arillery and i dont see why this page shouldnt simply be integrated with the full caliber article. The "rifled barrels" segment goes for small arms as well. Barrel length on the other hand (also known as "caliber length") does start at 20 mm caliber (cannon caliber) and could have its own article, however i do think it should be in the caliber article as well. There there is also "projectile caliber", used for the warhead-caliber in rocket projectiles (including such in rocket "artillery") and "over-caliber" ammo (opposite to sub-caliber), such as RPG-7 rockets and rifle grenades, but also sub-caliber ammo.--Blockhaj (talk) 02:19, 7 June 2022 (UTC)