If you look at most pre smokeless guns and cannons, you can often see them having a design that makes sense when it comes to their overall thickness. They are typically wider (often having “hoops”) closer to the breach area for obvious reasons as it’s where the explosion happened. But what I don’t understand is why they often had a slightly flared out bit at the extreme end of the barrel often called “muzzle face”, as often they would try to avoid putting a lot of weight on the extreme end as it would make it harder to move (aiming wise).
In: Engineering
The muzzle is the point where the gases escape and flare out in all directions. It needs to be reinforced because unlike the mid section of the rest of the barrel, it has nothing to hold onto so to speak. Stress fractures could form at the end of the barrel and eventually it could blow outwards like petals on a flower. Reinforcing this particular area helped prevent this. It also allowed for balancing the gun while maintaining a smaller form factor and allowing for more flexibility on carriage designs too.
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