The Mechanism of Variable Thickness Conical Shell Fragments’ Fracture Modes and Morphological Characteristics

Abstract

This paper presents a study of fragments’ fracture modes and morphological characteristics for fragmenting variable thickness conical shell under internal explosive loading. Available research focus on the constant thickness shell, and very few researches or articles are described to research variable thickness conical shell. Fragmentation of such shell was investigated experimentally, and the fragments' fracture modes and morphological characteristics were obtained by observation and statistical analysis. Then, the mechanism was studied, which is related to the interaction between adjacent longitudinal cracks. According to the research results, there are significant differences in the fracture relative time difference of the longitudinal positions of variable thickness shell when the position of initiation end is different. And it will lead to that if the position of initiation end is small end, the range of pure shear fracture zone is much larger than initiation from the big end, while the shape of the fragments is also more inclined to long strip.