Increasing the fatigue life of the firearm firing pin using the explicit solver

Firing pin is a critical component in terms of firearm function. Tip of firing pin can break off due to repeated impact loading, which results in malfunction of the whole firearm. This master's thesis aims to propose changes in geometry of the firing pin so that new firing pin will be more durable against fatigue failure. Geometry and characteristics of the original firing pin are provided by company Česká zbrojovka, a.s. To determine the amount of fatigue damage for specific configuration of firing pin, computational model, which simulates impact loading of the firing pin during dry fire, is created. Finite element method with explicit formulation is used for the calculation. Parameters of geometry, which are assumed to have highest influence on fatigue life, are chosen based on the analisys of the original firing pin. These parameters are changed in further calculations, resulting in new configuration of the firing pin, which is approximately 15 % more durable against fatigue failure