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Introduction
A high velocity metallic jet generated by a shaped
charge penetrates the armour target because of the
concentration of energy in a small cross-sectional area.
Generally, any lateral disturbance on the jet will
significantly decrease penetration depth. One of the most
efficient ways of disturbing a jet is to allow it to interact
with an oblique moving plate. The explosive reactive
armour (ERA), which consists of two steel plates
sandwiched around a layer of high explosive, is very
efficient as an add-on armour against shaped charge
jets.1 Although ERA is efficient in terms of both mass
and space, its explosive content poses a significant safety
and environmental concern. This aspect has motivated
researchers to study rubber composite armours.2
A rubber composite armour consists of an inert rubber
sandwiched between two thin steel plates. When a jet
impacts a rubber composite armour obliquely, the steel
plates interact with the moving jet during the bulging
process, thereby disrupting its normal action. A part of
the jet tips kinetic energy is converted into the rubbers
internal energy. The rubber layer creates a high pressure
region that causes bulging with a radial motion of the
steel plates.3 The mechanism underlying the disturbance
of the jet by the rubber composite armour is similar to
that of ERA. Held analysed the disturbance frequency
1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and
Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
2
No. 203 Research Institute of China Ordnance Industries, Xian 710065,
China
Experimental
Shaped charge used in test
The shaped charge used in these tests has a 0.8 mm
copper liner and 203 g explosive with an outer diameter
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DOP tests
To assess the protective capabilities of the four types of
laminated WFRCA against the shaped charge jet
impact, the DOP test method was used in the experiment. In all cases, the measuring distance from the
shaped charge to the WFRCA is 80 mm (*1.5 calibers).
The RHA witness targets were arranged at a distance of
340 mm from the shaped charge to measure the depth of
the residual penetration. The schematic penetration
behaviour of the shaped charge against the reference and
final typical results of the laminated WFRCA is shown
in Fig. 5. Given the unpredictable line of flight and
disturbance of the jet after penetrating the WFRCA,
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X-ray test
To evaluate the disturbance ability of the four types of
the abovementioned laminated WFRCAs against the
impact of the shaped charge jet, the X-ray test method
was used in the experiment. Two 45 kV flash X-ray
devices were used to observe the interaction between the
jet and the WFRCAs. The two flash tubes were arranged
exactly along the centreline of the shaped charge jet.
Two protected cassettes containing screen film were set
up to capture images of all disturbed jets. The distance
between the light extraction point of the tube and
the centreline of the shaped charge jet is equal to the
distance between the centreline of the shaped charge jet
and the X-ray screen films. Semicircular concrete blocks
were positioned to protect the equipment from the
products of detonation and debris. The first X-ray tube
exposure was set up with a time delay of 50 ms after
explosion, and the second tube was triggered after 80 ms.
The schematic and image of the X-ray test set-up are
shown in Figs. 7 and 8 respectively.
Jia et al.
W REF
W WFRCA W RES
Protection efficiency
Laminated WFRCA, as an add-on armour, was placed
at a particular distance from the main armour to
improve protective capabilities. The efficiency factors
are commonly used to describe the protection level of
different armours. These factors provide the information
required by an armour designer to design vehicle
protection without needing to know the details on the
structure and mechanism of the armour systems.
Moreover, with these factors of the armour, the weapon
designer can determine the necessary penetration power
of a kinetic energy projectile or a shaped charge warhead
to overcome the protection levels of these special
armours.
The mass efficiency factor (MEF) and space efficiency
factor (SEF) were calculated to describe the protective
capability of the armour systems. MEF is defined as the
ratio between the areal weight of the reference steel
target WREF and the total areal weight of the tested
armour WWFRCA, along with the areal weight of the
W REF 2 W RES
W WFRCA
PREF
SC PRES
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PREF 2 PRES
SC
Density/g cm23
Fabric type
Glass
Carbon
Kevlar
PBO
2.54
1.90
1.44
1.56
Twill
Plain
Plain
Plain
Tensile strength/GPa
3.45
2.6
2.8
5.8
Stretch modulus/GPa
Elongation/%
70
400
134
280
4.8
1.5
3.5
2.3
Density/g cm23
1.3
Density/g cm23
7.84
Tensile strength/MPa
23.8
Yield strength/MPa
235
Elongation at rupture/%
487
Elongation/%
26
Shore hardness
73
5 Schematic penetration behaviour of shaped charge against semi-infinite RHA witness blocks (reference) and test
laminated WFRCA
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Deformation of F plate
To analyse the disturbance mechanism, the deformations of the F plate for four types of laminated
WFRCA are presented. When the jet initially impacts
the WFRCA, the jet tip creates an elliptical hole in the
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Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a type of electron microscopy that produces images of a sample by
scanning it with a focused beam of electrons. In this
paper, JEOL JSM-6380LV at 30 kV was used to evaluate the structure and composition of the fabric, rubber
and steel plates after shaped charge jet impact. Rubber,
glass, Kevlar and PBO fibres are nonmetallic materials.
Thus, the specimens were subjected to spray gold processing to obtain conductive sample surfaces. Otherwise,
charge accumulation will occur, thereby causing point
discharge. To analyse the protective mechanism of
the different types of laminated WFRCAs against the
shaped charge jet impact, the edge of the crater of
rubber, glass, PBO, Kevlar woven fabric and steel plates
were observed using the scanning electron micrographs.
The deformation of the fabric during jet impact is also
used to illustrate the phenomenon of the jet disturbance.
The SEM images of the glass, Kevlar and PBO are
shown in Fig. 17. The results indicate that when the
fabric is changed, the deformation and fracture mechanisms of the fabrics present obvious differences.
The SEM images of the glass woven fabric after jet
impact are presented in Fig. 17a. The results from the
glass fibre yarns reveal that extensive damage occurred
in the glass laminate. In addition, a number of glass fibre
yarns were pulled out by the jet along the direction of
the yarn. Furthermore, the glass woven fabric laminate
was broken down into several small fragments and was
separated by high impact pressure. The fracture section
of the glass fabric was kept abreast.
The SEM image of Kevlar woven fabric after
perforation by a shaped charge jet is shown in Fig. 17b.
The Kevlar fabric exhibited slight actual fibre pullout,
although minor fibre ablation at the fracture section may
have occurred. When the jet impacted the Kevlar woven
fabric layers, the fabric deformed into an approximate
square pyramid centred at the point of impact. As the jet
moved sequentially, the impacted region continued to
expend along the orthogonal directions of the yarns,
finally resulting in an approximately square shaped
damage on the fabric region. This condition occurred
because of the cross-woven nature of the weave.
In addition, the inter-yarn friction of Kevlar woven
fabric is higher. Thus, the removal of yarns is more
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14 X-ray radiograph of shaped charge jet penetrating each of four types of laminated WFRCA
difficult for the jet, and therefore, the jet must dissipate
more energy to break more yarns to perforate the fabric.
By contrast, Fig. 17c indicates that the PBO yarns that
were directly impacted by the shaped charge jet were
severely pulled out from the woven fabric. Thus, well
documented disorganisation was observed in the fabric.
PBO fibres have a microscopically smooth surface, have
few functional groups, and reveal relatively strong
chemical inertness. These factors can result in friction
reduction between fibres in the fabric during yarn pullout. Given a lower friction, a jet can push yarns apart
more easily. The increase in energy dissipation in the
PBO layers could be partly attributed to the increase in
the force required to pull out each yarn from the fabric.
Thus, most of the energy dissipated and was absorbed
by the yarn pullout. Meanwhile, the disordered fibres
would also disturb the moving jet and reduce the jet
penetration ability. Therefore, the defeat mechanism in
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the PBO WFRCA target is different from the mechanisms in the other types of composite armours, especially
with respect to the extent of yarn pulled out.
The SEM images of the edge of the crater of the
rubber layer after jet impact are shown in Fig. 18a.
When the shaped charge jet initially impacted the laminated WFRCA, the tip of jet created an elliptical hole
and a high pressure region in the plates. The pressurised
region in the rubber layer functions as an energy source
and compresses the rubber. Numerous cracks appeared
at the crater of the rubber layer, and a large number of
rubber particles appeared on the side of the crater. Some
broken PBO fibres were embedded in the rubber layer.
Thus, the rubber mechanical properties will change.
The edge of the penetration crater in the steel plate
was inspected via SEM to evaluate if the materials were
melted in the contact surface between the jet and
the plate. A large amount of melted copper covered the
Jia et al.
16 Crater on witness target after shaped charge jet impacted laminated WFRCAs
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Conclusions
Carbon, glass, Kevlar and PBO WFRCAs were tested
for ballistic performance against a W56 mm shaped
charge jet at 68u NATO angle via the DOP test method.
The efficiency factors were used to evaluate the performance of the laminated WFRCAs. A high efficiency
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Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (grant no. 11272157) and the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 11072115).
References
1. M. Held, M. Mayseless and E. Rototaev: Explosive reactive
armour, Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on
Ballistics, Moreleta Park, South Africa, 3346; 1998.
2. N. Gov, Y. Kivity and D. Yaziv: On the interaction of a shaped
charge jet with a rubber filled metallic cassette, Proceedings of
the 13th International Symposium on Ballistics, Stockholm,
Sweden, 95102; 1992.
3. D. Yaziv, S. Frilling and Y. Kivity: The interaction of inert cassettes
with shaped charge jets, Proceedings of the 15th International
Symposium on Ballistics, Jerusalem, Israel, 2124; 1995.
4. M. Held: Disturbance of shaped charge jets by bulging armor,
Propellants Explos. Pyrotech., 2001, 26, 191195.
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