Hemispherical Zirconium Liner for Advanced Shaped Charge with Enhanced Behind Armor Effect

Armour penetration is an essential outcome for shaped charges, especially when the behind-armour effect is considered.Hemispherical liners produce superior jet mass compared with those of traditional conical shape.In this paper two different materials have been studied as hemispherical shaped charge liners.The reference liner was hemispherical oxygen-free highconductivity copper (OFHC); the other liner material was zirconium.These liners were experimentally tested against 4340 steel targets in shaped charges loaded with the same amount of Composition B explosive.Zirconium liners were found to offer superior performance with experimental penetration and crater diameter respectively 16% and 20% greater than OFHC.Ansys Autodyn hydrocode simulation results demonstrated that both liners produced superior jet masses exceeding 50% of the total liner mass.Moreover, zirconium had a jet tip velocity of 4869 m/s compared with 3886 m/s for OFHC.Additionally, zirconium had a superior average jet collapse to plastic deformation temperature ratio of 0.73 compared with 0.34 for OFHC.This is the first time the relation between the jet temperature during collapse and jet stretching has been reported.