Failure Engineered Heavy Metal Penetrators
Abstract
The use of a layered tungsten penetrator as a replacement for depleted uranium in kinetic energy penetrators was investigated. The penetrator was fabricated using strips of tungsten which were vacuum brazed to form a single part. Two filler metals were investigated, copper and nickel along with built in mechanical shear lines. The objective of the shear line was to act as a fault line along which the penetrator would fracture. A limited parametric steady of layered penetrator configuration was conducted with the EPIC-2 computer code. The code was used to obtain estimates of the effect of tungsten layer thickness on penetration ability. Tests were conducted at the U.S. Army Materials Technology Laboratory, presently U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Materials Directorate, on twelve .30 inch diameter penetrators. The test results indicated that the thin layer penetrator performed better than the thick layer. Also the nickel braze material appeared to perform better than the copper. Combination of the thin layer with a nickel filler metal may potentially result in a penetrator with better performance than that of existing tungsten alloy penetrators.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA258962
Entities
People
- D. Nicholson
- Robert Cavalleri
- W. Tiarn