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Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering
4
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Mercosur Congress on Process Systems Engineering



*
To whom all correspondence should be addressed.
Address: Seo de Engenharia Qumica - Instituto Militar de Engenharia - Praa General Tibrcio, 80 Praia Vermelha
CEP:22290-270 Rio de Janeiro - RJ Brasil E-mail: fpeixoto@ime.eb.br and luiz@ime.eb.br

EVALUATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF LINEAR SHAPED CHARGES
Mizrahi, M. A.
1
, Peixoto, F. C.
1*
, Borges, L. E.
1*

1
Seo de Engenharia Qumica - Instituto Militar de Engenharia


Abstract: Conical shaped charges are commonly used to cut off heavy structures located in difficult access
regions at a low cost and in a very quick way, being a sensible knowledge area for the Defense and Petroleum
Industry. Flexible linear shaped charge is a new and progressive conception, not completely understood, with
parameters and performance that depend on the materials, geometry, kind of metallic liner, thickness, weight of
explosive, angle etc. The aim of this work is to evaluate the relationship between the main parameters and the
performance of linear shaped charges, with various field tests, proposing an optimum configuration and presenting
a completely brazilian technology to work out these products.

Keywords: Explosives, Shaped Charge and Liner


1. Introduction

An explosive cylinder with a cavity at one extremity and a detonator at the other is known as a Shaped Charge.
This device produces a considerable quantity of energy concentrated against the target and is able to generate a
penetration larger than the one resulting from a cylinder with no cavity.
If the cavity is recovered with a metallic layer, a plasma jet is formed from the collapse of the metallic structure
which produces a cutting edge. Figure 1 shows the collapse of a shaped charge with a conical cavity.


Fig. 1. Collapse of a shaped charge with conical cavity.

The larger penetration of the system containing metal + explosive is explained by the target lateral displacement,
caused by the high pressure of the shock wave. The material of the target is pushed off, reducing its internal
resistance which means that the target does not melt; instead, a cutting effect is produced by mechanical work.
The penetration is even larger if the explosive charge is placed within an adequate distance from the target, called
standoff, as in Figure 2:


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Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering
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Mercosur Congress on Process Systems Engineering




Fig. 2. Schematical effects produced by the shaped charge: (a) no liner, no distance from the target; (b) with liner, no distance; (c)
with liner and maintaining a distance from the target (standoff).

In this work we present a new methodology to set up a very low cost shaped charge using commercially available
materials, reducing external dependence. A 1-meter prototype cost is around US$ 32.00 while similar devices are
sold for more than US$ 400.00 per meter. The mentioned similar device can be considered the state of the art of the
technology: with less than 500 g of explosives per meter, it can crack almost 3 cm of steel and can produce curved
cuts, once it is flexible. In addition to the fact that its cost is prohibitive, it can only be initiated by special fuses
which are, themselves, a very expensive item.
The assembling of such devices is the strict goal of this work; however, it was carried out using a design of
experiments procedure, which constitutes a secondary result. This design searched the configuration for deeper
penetration.
It is worth saying that, once this device is also used in defense technologies, the related literature is classified and
no background could be established. So, we can (and could) not conduct a traditional literature review, due to the
complete absence of references; similarly, the related development had no previous works to be based on.


2. Materials and Methods

To assemble the prototype the following materials were employed: polyurethane foam, obtained by mixing two
commercial components; aluminum corners as liners; PVC tubes as molds; QZ 13-1 CIBA as the decasting agent;
Araldite as adhesive; IMBEL #6 fuses as initiators; acrylic plates used to put the lid on one extremity of the tube;
dichloro-methane to fuse the PVC to the acrylic plate and 1045 Steel sheets as targets.
The aim was to obtain a prototype according to Figure 3, with the system aluminum corner + explosive in a
leaning configuration, so that many standoffs could be evaluated in just one experiment.

a
b
c

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Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering
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Mercosur Congress on Process Systems Engineering




Fig. 3. Prototype to be assembled.

A polyurethane foam was used to give integrity to the device, preserving the structure, maintaining the standoff
and contributing to the impermeability. It was employed a commercial mix of two components to generate the
desired foam, with requirements of density and reversibility to the deformation.
Mixing was held at ambient temperature and under atmospheric pressure. After many tests it was observed that
the best mix of Isocyanate and Polyol was 1:1, with no addition of other components.
Polyurethane was chosen because it is flexible, impermeable, exhibits open cells which are air permeable and
because of its availability at low cost.
A foam cylinder can be seen in Figure 4:

Fig. 4. Polyurethane covering.

Four aluminum corners were used, with dimensions according to Table 1.
Explosive

Standoff
Liner
Polyurethane


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Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering
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Table 1. Dimensions of Aluminum Corner
Flap (inches) Thickness (inches)
1 1/8
1 1/16
1/8
1/16

Aluminum was chosen because it is easy to purchase, has low cost and long shelf life, exhibits a melting point of
660
o
C, is considerably ductile, easily forms alloys and has low density (2,708 g/cm3).
The explosice employed was PLASTEX, a plastic explosive produced by IMBEL (Brazilian Ordnance) with
TNT (trinitrotoluene), PETN (nitropente) and plasticizers. It is sold as 40 cm by 25 cm sheets which had to be cut in
strips so that one can assemble several layers over the metallic liner.
Table 2 shows the main characteristics of Plastex:

Table 2. Main characteristics of PLASTEX
Parameter Reference Value
Density (g/cm
3
) 1.40 a 1.60
Detonation Velocity (m/s) > 7000
Water resistance after immersion for 6
hours
It shows unchanged consistence and undergoes complete detonation when
ignited with number 8 fuses
Geometric shape after storage (+50C
during 24 hours)
Unchanged

To paste the strips to aluminum, a single layer of Araldite 24 hours was used. An auxiliary second corner and
elastic bands promoted the accommodation of original explosive + corner system, according to Figure 5:


Fig. 5. Method for strips accommodation.

After this procedure, no strictions or abnormal leaning were observed and the devices were structurally similar.
The assembly of the prototype required the following steps: aluminum corners were cut in 30 cm length and
received holes of 0,5 cm diameter at 0,5 cm from the extremities; explosives blankets were cut in 2.5 cm X 25 cm
and 5 cm X 25 cm strips; strips were assembled onto the aluminum corner with Araldite

24 hours; PVC tubes were

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Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering
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cut in 40 cm length and received holes at 0,5 cm from the extremities; demolding was applied at the tube;
polyurethane foam was prepared and poured in the tube; a 24 hour cure time was respected; demolding took place
and the prototype was cut to the correct dimensions.
The assembling apparatus is showed at Figure 6:


Fig. 6. Prototype assembling apparatus.

4. DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS

In order to define the optimum geometric configuration for the prototype and according to previous works
(Mizrahi, 2001 and 2002), the following parameters were chosen as experimental coordinates: liner width and
thickness (aluminum corner) and number explosive strips, according to Table 3.

Tab. 3. Number of Strips on Each Metallic Corner
Width (inches) Thickness (inches) Number Strips
1 1/8 4
1 1/8 8
1/2 1/8 4
1/2 1/8 8
1 1/16 4
1 1/16 8
1/2 1/16 4
1/2 1/16 8

As can be seen on Table 3, only two levels for each coordinate were used, leading to a minimum experimental
grid. That was done for security reasons, in order to minimize risks involving explosives manipulation.
An empirical model was built to predict the contribution of each experimental coordinate and all their interactions
would have exactly eight adjustable parameters/coefficients, as in Eq. (1):

3 2 1 7 3 2 6 3 1 5 2 1 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 0
x x x x x x x x x x x x y + + + + + + + = (1)

where is the vector of adjustable coefficients and x is a vector of normalized variables.

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In order to fit the coefficients, it would be necessary to neglect at least one interaction term, which can be done
analyzing each effect, according to Eq. (2):

[ ] C . y E 4 E 4 E 4 E 4 E 4 E 4 E 4 M 8
t
NeL eL NL Ne L e N
= (2)

where E
ij
is the effect of interaction of coordinate i with j, M is the global mean and C is the collocation matrix,
given by:

(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(

=
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
C
(3)

and y is the vector of experimental results. As will be shown in the results section, no effect could be neglected and
coefficients were not statistically fitted, but simply calculated by:

[ ] y . C
1
= (4)

To get the maximum penetration, one must find the maximum of Eq. (1):

+ + + =

+ + + =

+ + + =

2 1 7 2 6 1 5 3
3
3 1 7 3 6 1 4 2
2
3 2 7 3 5 2 4 1
1
x x x x
x
y
x x x x
x
y
x x x x
x
y
(5)

which solutions are:

( )
7 6 5
2
7 3
5 4 7 3 6 4 7 1 6 5 2 7 7 3 6 5 4
3
x

+ +
= ,
3 7 4
3 6 2
1
x
x
x
+
+
= ,
3 7 4
3 5 1
2
x
x
x
+
+
= (6)

the sign being chosen to produce a (feasible) maximum (not a minimum).

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5. Field Tests

IMBEL (Brazilian Ordnance Industry) #6 fuse with hydraulic string was used in field tests for ignition. Even
though ignition by electric fuse was proven to be effective (Mizrahi and Santiago, 2001), hydraulic strings provided
autonomy to the device, once electric power is not always available in working sites.
The target was a 1045 steel sheet, 2.5 cm (thickness to be perforated) X 30 cm X 15 cm; the fuse was placed at
the front part of the prototype, using adhesive tape to avoid rotational movements. Figure 7 shows the apparatus
assembly.


Fig. 7. Prototype in field and ready to be fired. The fuse position is pointed out.

6. Results and Discussions

Figure 8, below, depicts all eight targets after detonation:



Fig. 8. Effects of preliminary detonations on target.


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Maximum penetrations for each test was measured and results are showed in Table 4:

Table 4. Maximum penetration for each prototype
Experiment Penetration (mm) Experiment Penetration (mm)
1 10,98 5 9,96
2 15,14 6 16,82
3 3,44 7 4,14
4 12,60 8 16,84

Some other additional qualitative results were observed, as a small production of smoke and flame, turning the
localization of the dismounting work into a difficult task (as would be required in combat demolitions) as well as the
ones staded on Hornemann and Holzwarth (1993) and Walters and Zukas (1989), concerning relations among
coordinates and penetrations.
Table 5, below, collects all the resulting entities, which were all defined in this text

Table 5. Results
Entity Final Value
Global Mean 11.24
E
N
1.4
E
e
-3.97
E
L
8.22
E
Ne
1.07
E
NL
1.56
E
eL
2.71
E
NeL
0.21

t
[ ] 105 , 0 355 , 1 78 , 0 535 , 0 11 , 4 985 , 1 7 , 0 24 , 11
x
1
opt
Eq. (6) 2.2102528
x
2
opt
Eq. (6) -1.8609472
x
3
opt
Eq. (6) 0.505656
N
opt
10
L
opt
1 inch
e
opt
1/32 inch

The thinnest aluminum corner commercially available is 1/16 inch thick and this was used, instead, in the
assembling of two additional prototypes: one with the leaning configuration to elucidate the optimum standoff for the
optimum configuration given by N
opt
, L
opt
and e
opt
and the last one to corroborate this optimum stand off (for
optimum configuration) in a non-leaning scheme.
The first one produced a maximum penetration of 17.10 mm, ratifying the experimental planning; the
corresponding target can be seen on Figure 9:


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Fig. 9. First additional test.

With the corresponding standoff, a non-leaning prototype was assembled and the resulting target can be seen in
Figure 10:


Fig. 10. Second additional test.

This last experiment exhibited a precise and straight cut, with no curves and homogeneous penetrations depths.

7. Conclusions

A technology to cut metallic sheets with linear shaped charges using just brazilian industry materials was
developed. A predictive empirical model was also developed and showed adequate behavior, predicting an optimal
configuration that was confirmed experimentally.
The main achievement was a considerable reduction of costs, once each 25 cm prototype was assembled for
about US$ 8.00 (in March 2005) while similar imported materials cost US$ 100.00 each.
As suggestions, one can indicate the usage of copper or copper-alloys corners in casted structures, as well as
other polymeric coverings.
Once all components that could be affected by water are encapsulated, this device could be used in underwater
dismounting works, as well. Therefore, it would be of great assistance if sub aquatic tests could be performed, to
check the maximum shelf time for a perfect ignition with unchanged performance.


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8. Bibliography

Walters, W. P. and Zukas, J. A. (1989). Fundamentals of Shaped Charge, John Wiley & Sons, New York

Hornemann, U. and Holzwarth, A. (1993) Characteristics of Shaped Charges with Hemispherical Liners,
Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics, 18, 282-287, 1993
Santiago, D. G. and Mizrahi, M. A. (2001) Desenvolvimento de Cargas Ocas Lineares Flexveis (in portuguese), In
Proceedings of 4
o
ETMq/IPqM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Santiago, D. G. & Mizrahi, M. A. (2002) Avaliao do Desempenho de Cargas Ocas Lineares Flexveis (in
portuguese), In Proceedings of EBMEC2002/IPqM, Rio de Janeiro, RJ