Simulation Study on Low-Density Jets Formability and Damage Characteristics of Different Charge Structures

Abstract

ERA (explosive reaction armor) makes the traditional anti-tank weapon face unprecedented challenge. To defeat an ERA, a tandem shaped charge is the most used ammunition. Whether the front warhead of tandem warhead can detonate the reactive armor reliably determines whether the rear warhead can achieve high efficiency damage to the armored target. The existing shaped charge front warhead mostly adopts a metal shaped jet, which can effectively initiate the ERA, but disturb the rear main shaped jet. In order to avoid this shortcoming, reduce the mass of the front warhead and improve the penetration power of the rear warhead, the low-density material Plexiglas is used as liner material in this paper. By comparing the formation and damage characteristics of low-density jet with different charge structures, it is expected that ERA and after-effect can be destroyed efficiently. The results show that the shaped charge structure with wave-shaper is better than the shaped charge structure without wave-shaper regardless of jet formation performance or the penetration ability of the ERA and after-effect target. The low-density jet formed by the shaped charge structure with wave-shaper can reliably detonate the ERA, and the mass of the shaped charge structure with wave-shaper is smaller, so it can reduce the mass of the front warhead, in turn, the penetration power of the rear warhead in tandem warhead is improved. It provides a reference for improving the damage ability of tandem shaped charge to ERA.