Nitrogen Atmosphere for Bradleys?

Nitrogen is widely used for Gas-Fire Extinguishing and keeping welding processes under control, how about not waiting for the fire to happen and try to to extinghuish it, but have the nitrogen already in place?

The idea would be to have an inert gas atmosphere in APC to protect the crew from incendiary effects from rounds breaching the armour, naturally the crew would have to breath through oxygen masks during the ride, making it less comfortable (maybe even impractible?) and some kind of airlock/pump would have to be installed to keep as much nitrogen in the vehicle when people enter/exit the vehicle....

Maybe one could breath without masks before entering the actual battlezone and put on the masks and replace the atmosphere from a nrtrogen tank when entering the battlezone, this would obsolete the need for an airlock, only the tank has to be refilled when returning to base.


[edit on 6-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

So what happens when a round punctures the nitrogen tank?

I believe that most shaped charge explosives have oxidizers �built in�

Some one correct me if I am wrong, but I think the object is to use the shaped explosive to �squirt� a jet of oxidizing gas that latterly burns though steel like a cutting torch. An inert atmosphere isn't going to prevent that.

You are right, It willl not stop the actual puncturing of the armor, nor burnwounds that would arise from crewmember coming in direct contact with the remaining plasmajet,

But lets not forget many tankkills come from the secondary fire/explosives inside the vehicle, ammo/fuel catching fure etc.. this would be surpressed and the sooner the better.

I think it would be more effective in supressing the effect of high kinetic energy darts, who does not carry own oxydizer and rely on fine shattered pieces of pyro-active metals to catch fire with oxygen inside the compartment


Field tests would have to be done to see if its really worth all the trouble


[edit on 6-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

Okay, I see where you are going with this. How about a fire suppression system that deploys like an airbag in a car. A sensor detects the impact, and fires off the sodium azide. You blow the nitrogen gas pulse though a foam generator of some kind instead of into an air bag. Of course if it is just a glancing blow or one that does not penetrate the amour, it would probably still fire and you would have a major mess inside the tank that would destroy the electronics and render it out of commission anyway.

....If only a few persons could be saved from being rendered out of commision it might be worth the investment

A system like that poses more threat to personnel than it's worth in terms of extra safety. Having to supply compressed air means you have to store it somewhere. That alone, in the battlezone, is an extra danger. Then, the air tank onboard becomes an additional point of failure. If a valve jams, a person would quickly suffocate.

Fuel spilled from a punctured fuel tank would happily burn outside, and on the surfdace of the vehicle. And since spalling (shrapnel produced in the at wepon blast) is a major factor not mitigated by the atmosphere, there is furthermore les advantage.

Dredd, you're right, ok lets fill the tub with water instead and hand out breathing straws

Originally posted by HowardRoark
I believe that most shaped charge explosives have oxidizers “built in”

All explosives have their own oxidizer!
Whether it is in separate compound (black powder) or all (fuel&oxidizer) in same molecule.

Mechanism of shaped charge is little kinda like using magnifying class (and sun's heat).
It sents high speed jet of molten metal which causes so huge pressure to target that even steel acts like liquid.
Behind target's surface it kills with fragments of melted metal.

Also kinetic energy rounds (APDS&APFSDS) causes "burst" of high speed metal fragments inside target.

So igniting fire is just bonus, it's not required for kill.
Also if ammunition storage gets hit this won't do nothing to prevent explosion of them.

What happens when you open the door
and what happens to the ammo the tanks would take up space for, the more crap you load on the less ammo you have man, remember keep it simple to keep it deadly.

Countermeasures, thing is, they don't always know where the battlezone is exactly; in Iraq recently, a lot of the attacks at the very start of the war took them by surprise.

I do know though that the fire-suppression system on an M1A1 Abrams, the early 1990s tech version, could extinguish fires in like 1/500th of a second. But that's a tank still.