Sat Apr 02, 2011 9:34 am
Assuming the use of normalized 4340 or similar for the chamber, pushing out that bolt quickly would require the application of about 150 kpsi to its entire face, or just over 1 Mpsi to the 9/16" area. The initial "decompression" pressure of the *air* will exceed that, but the "steady state" pressure (*decompression wave* has passed, but heat transfer has not played a significant role yet) won't even come close. For comparison, the initial "decompression" pressure in my attempt exceeded the ultimate tensile failure point of the chamber by about a factor of five. These things survive seemingly by inertia alone...
After running that rough calculation, I'd suggest either a decrease in bore diameter, an increase in bolt diameter, an increase in thread engagement, or some combination thereof.
Spudfiles' resident expert on all things that sail through the air at improbable speeds, trailing an incandescent wake of ionized air, dissociated polymers and metal oxides.
