Numerical simulation study on penetration performance of depleted Uranium (DU) alloy fragments

Due to its high strength, high density, high hardness and good penetration capabilities, Depleted uranium alloys have already shined in armor-piercing projectiles. There should also be a lot of room for improvement in the application of fragment killing elements. Therefore, regarding the performance of the depleted uranium alloy to penetrate the target plate, further investigation is needed to analyze its advantages and disadvantages compared to tungsten alloy. To study the difference in penetration performance between depleted uranium alloy and tungsten alloy fragments, firstly, a theoretical analysis of the adiabatic shear sensitivity of DU and tungsten alloys was given from the perspective of material constitutive model. Then, taking the cylindrical fragment penetration target as the research object, the penetration process and velocity characteristics of the steel target plates penetrated by DU alloy fragment and tungsten alloy fragment were compared and analyzed, by using finite element software ANSYS/LS-DYNA and Lagrange algorithm. Lastly, the influence of different postures when impacting target and different fragment shapes on the penetration results is carried out in the research. The results show that in the penetration process of the DU and tungsten alloy fragments, the self-sharpening properties of the DU alloy can make the fragment head sharper and the penetrating ability enhance. Under the same conditions, the penetration capability of cylindrical fragment impacting target in vertical posture is better than that in horizontal posture, and the penetration capability of the spherical fragment is slightly better than that of cylindrical fragment.