Range extension of artillery projectiles has always been a basic requirement of the user in order to shoot the enemy targets at longer distances. Base bleeding (BB) is one of the concepts used to decrease air resistance during projectile flight in air and, consequently, increase range. This paper studies the effect of BB on projectile range and evaluates BB unit ballistic performance. The BB grain shape investigated herein is the modified star grain shape. Instantaneous burnt surface of the grain is calculated using a newly developed approach which can be readily used with other grain shapes. The relation between the BB unit and the projectile ballistic shape is discussed. The effect of projectile spinning on burning rate of BB grain is also studied. It is concluded that the effect of BB projectile spinning on the range is very limited.
A parametric study is performed to study the effect of grain geometry, initial firing angle, and BB grain burning rate on the BB projectile range. The range of BB projectile is extended by about 17% of the total range of the same projectile with dummy BB.