1. Field of Invention
The technical scope of the invention is that of muzzle brakes for weapons.
2. Description of the Related Art
Muzzle brakes are well known to somebody skilled in the art. After firing, they enable part of the propellant gases of a piece of ammunition to be directed towards gas reception vanes integral with the gun barrel. The gases thereby exert a force on the vanes that oppose the recoil stress.
Patent FR2718839 describes such a known muzzle brake.
Generally speaking, a muzzle brake is sought to be designed that is as efficient as possible in its braking capacity but whose mass is as small as possible so as to reduce the mechanical torques on the gun trunnions.
These two requirements are, a priori, contradictory since a simple means of improving efficiency is to increases the reception surfaces for the gases thereby leading to an increase in the dimension and thus the mass of the muzzle brake.