Shaped change warheads with molybdenum liners produced by high energy forming
Publish date: 2008-12-10
Report number: FOI-R--2541--SE
Pages: 20
Written in: Swedish
Keywords:
- Shaped charge warheads
- molybdenum liner
- high energy rate forming
- HERF
Abstract
Shaped charge warheads of today almost exclusively use copper in their liners. One way to increase the penetration capability of SC- warheads is to change the liner material and use molybdenum instead of copper, see e.g. [1]. However, the use of molybdenum instead of copper in this application requires a fine microstructure of the molybdenum so that the normally rather brittle material acts ductile during the jet formation. Therefore, the performance of the warhead is heavily dependent on an adequate choice of method for manufacturing the molybdenum liner. In this study SC-warheads with molybdenum liners, manufactured by high energy rate forming, HERF, have been studied and their performance has been compared to that of two types of SC-warheads with copper liners, one made with the same HERF- technology and one turned out of cylinders. The HERF-method means that the liner is formed at a high rate, in only a few punches, to the desired geometry. It is a unique Swedish technology that was developed by the company Hydropulsor in Karlskoga. The manufacture method is of interest as it can be expected to create a fully formed liner with a fine microstructure in a few forming steps, which makes it a fast and cheap method. The performance received from the warheads in this study has been assessed by studies of the received jets and the penetration pattern at the front of the plate used to capture the residual penetration from the jet. A material investigation of the liners was also part of the study. This report was a joint effort between the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Saab Bofors Dynamics and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV). FMV financed the forming tool, Saab Bofors Dynamics was responsible for the manufacturing of the liners and FOI was responsible for the material investigation and the firing tests. The test results indicate that the HERF- technology is usable for this application and that molybdenum as liner material has potential to increase the warheads' performance compared to warheads using copper as liner material since ductile jets with high jet velocity was received. Though, the warhead design used in the tests probably contributed to some deficiency at the jet formation which led to uneven jets with, in some cases, incoherent tips of the jets.