Experimental Studies of Advanced Concepts for Reactive Casings
Abstract
The objective of this research is to develop reactive warhead cases that can be fabricated by conventional, inexpensive mass production techniques and that yield significant shock-induced reactivity (upon detonation of the explosive payload) of the order of 10 kJ/kg such that the overall output of a warhead system would be increased by a factor of two or more in terms of both primary blast and long duration impulse effects on common targets. If successful, the technologies developed in this project could be used on existing weapons systems to increase yields by a factor of two or more without changes to the weapon footprint, geometry, or electronics systems. In addition, new warhead systems could be designed that have less explosive payload, but provide the same output at substantial over savings in system weight and/or size. Our focus will be on fabrication technologies that are of similar cost as those used to make conventional, non-reactive cases. This one-year project will involve detailed parametric studies of the most promising formulation uncovered in our previous study to optimize the design. In addition, we will use controlled test to determine relative shock-induced and impact induced fractions of reactivity. Since this material must perform as a weapons casing, material properties are critical. These material properties including strength and toughness will be evaluated to ensure these are indeed structural materials. Cases made by additive manufacturing will also be tested against our formulations
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 10, 2017
- Source ID
- HDTRA11710006
Entities
People
- Nick Glumac
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign