Aluminum Reactive Material Warhead Casings
Abstract
Pure aluminum metal manufactured using Cold Isostatic Press (CIP) bears the properties of Structural Reactive Material (SRM) and has the capacity to increase lethality due to the continuous combustion of the fragments after explosion. This thesis focuses on the enhanced lethality and reactivity produced by replacing conventional warhead casings with SRM aluminum manufactured using CIP. Pure Al SRM is totally unclassified and can be studied by academic groups, other NATO countries, and so on to study the properties of SRM without classification issues. Mechanical and fragmentation analysis were conducted on three Al SRMs. H2(37%wt)/H15(63%wt), H15(90%wt)/Sn(10%wt) and pure H15. H15 is eventually selected to produce the first set of explosive casings for testing. Two types of Al H15 SRM casings with average mass to charge (M/C) ratio of 1.86 and 2.82 at 5% porosity were made for testing. Explosive experiment is then conducted in a cylindrical chamber to determine ballistic properties and reactivity of CIP H15 SRM cases compared to conventional 6061 aluminum casing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1069646
Entities
People
- Daniel A. Kotei
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School