FLUTED BARRELS - GOOD OR BAD

[tom12.7]

If you are talking about strength to weight ratio, then no, he is correct.
Same weight and length, a hollow tube offers higher strength than a solid one.
Also, flutes offer better cooling due to increased surface area and higher temp exposed to air for radiation (bottom of flutes), compared to a barrel of equal mass.

What is the temperature capacity radiated from the the inside corner of that said fluting to an outer corner? Something to think about.

[vicious_cb]

What is the temperature capacity radiated from the the inside corner of that said fluting to an outer corner? Something to think about.

Forget fluted, get a finned barrel instead. Now you can mag dump all day.

[tom12.7]

Radial fluting can have it's own merits, but for the OP, we would assume longitudinal ones for this scope.

[Lrodrgz]

From an Engineering standpoint, structures (buildings, bridges, etc. ) are mostly done with I-beams. Think of and I-beam as a fluted square bar. Therefore, I don't see a problem with flutted barrels. The weight savings and heat dissipation are advantages over a similar non-flutted barrel.


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[Potshot]

From what i understand, barrels typically suffet a very minor loss of accuracy after fluting.

[Pappabear]

Fluted barrels look cool as shit, then you put a cool as shit rail on it, then you got an inch or two of cool as shit. I've owned both, never felt any real advantage for field use.

PB

[lysander]

I think good/bad is a poor choice of words, so I'd suggest pros/cons or advantages/disadvantages and maybe even cost/benefit analyses.

GIVEN - A hollow cylinder is stronger than a solid cylinder of equal mass and the same material. And that most of the 'strength' of a cylindrical shape comes from the outer dimensional portions, i.e., cube of the radial IIRC.

GET - Take a solid cylindrical rod and drill out 1/2 the volume from the center ... you do not lose 1/2 the strength. The strength to weight ratio is better for a hollow pipe than a solid rod.

ASSUMPTIONS - I assume the logic (fluted vs unfluted barrels) somewhat follows these same engineering principles. (It is the mass component that confuses me.)

So maybe for a true comparison you'd have to compare barrels of the same length and weight, where the diameter of the fluted barrel and the #, length and depth of the flutes fit that weight/length parameters.

All barrels are hollow cylinders.... assuming the caliber is the same the central hole remains the same, only the walls get thicker.

Right thought, wrong way of explaining it. The more material you have at a radius further away from the center axis, the stiffer it will be.

A solid barrel 1 inch in diameter will be stiffer than a solid barrel 3/4 of an inch in diameter.

A 1 inch diameter barrel that has been fluted will be stiffer than a solid barrel 3/4 of an inch in diameter, but not as stiff as the 1 inch solid barrel.

A solid barrel 1 inch in diameter will be heavier than a solid barrel 3/4 of an inch in diameter.

A 1 inch diameter barrel that has been fluted will be heavier than a solid barrel 3/4 of an inch in diameter, but lighter than the 1 inch solid barrel.

Heat transfer due to radiation, is proportional to the surface area, since a fluted barrel has more surface area, the greater the surface area, will transfer heat faster. How much faster depends on the percent surface area is increased. This is why fins are best for cooling, the surface area increase is much higher, however, there is no increase in stiffness, with fins.

Barrel temperature is proportional to mass, the more mass the lower the temperature for the same number of rounds, at the same rate of fire. So, again the large diameter solid barrel remains at a lower temperature that both the fluted and small diameter un-fluted barrels, but weighs more.

So, it boils down to what do you want:

Maximum stiffness, lowest barrel temp for any given round at rate of fire, and are will to pay for it in weight? - Solid, large diameter barrel.

Lightest weigh? - Small diameter barrel.

Something in between? - Fluted

[Stickman]

Fluted barrels look cool as shit, then you put a cool as shit rail on it, then you got an inch or two of cool as shit. I've owned both, never felt any real advantage for field use.

PB

A lighter barrel is the only difference in a practical world that I can see, and the variation of how much difference there is in weight can be very small from some places.

[Eric D.]

The primary mode of barrel cooling is natural convection. Radiation plays a very small part.

[MistWolf]

Let's find out what an engineer had to say about barrel fluting. Here is the link to Varmint Al's explanation of how fluting affects barrel stiffness and accuracy
http://varmintal.com/aflut.htm

If the article makes your eyeballs glaze over, here are the Cliff's Notes

CONCLUSION ON BARREL FLUTING....

When comparing two barrels of equal weight, length, and material but one is solid and other is fluted, the fluted barrel will have:

A larger diameter

Greater stiffness (depending on how the extra diameter/weight is distributed)

Vibrate at a higher frequency (depending on how the extra diameter/ weight is distributed)

Less muzzle sag (depending on how the extra diameter/ weight is distributed)

Fluting a solid barrel will:

Reduce its weight

Reduce its stiffness

Increase its natural frequency of vibration

Decrease its muzzle sag.

Reducing the weight of a barrel by fluting makes a stiffer barrel than reducing the weight by decreasing its diameter.

A shorter barrel of the same section, solid or fluted, will sag less and vibrate at a higher frequency.