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Shaped charges are a warhead technology often applied to rocket propelled grenades and represent a dangerous threat for armored
vehicles in combat as well as in peace-keeping operations. Their armor piercing performance rests upon an explosively induced collapse
of a metallic liner to a stretching jet with very high particle velocities. A copper jet produced by a shaped charge can be distorted by high
electric currents injected into the jet by means of spaced electrode plates connected to a high voltage capacitor. In tests carried out at
Fraunhofer EMI, a shaped charge with a well characterized jet was used for the experiments in order to examine the current flow through
the jet and its effect on the jet evolution. The measured current flow is related to the jet dynamics and the distortion pattern observed by
multiple flash X-ray images. As expected, the current flow starts when the jet tip reaches the back electrode plate. No significant change
of the current flow is observed at the characteristic jet break-up time. The current flow continues after the tail of the copper jet has left
the electrodes and resembles a damped sinusoidal. A distortion of the jet is observed where the jet particles are not aligned along the jet
axis. Instead the particles are stretched orthogonally to the jet axis with increased separation along the jet axis. The tip part of the jet
is hardly affected. The jet distortion is analyzed with respect to jet dynamics and current flow which allows formulating criteria for the
design of electric armor systems. The current injection effective for jet distortion is limited to a time slot of a magnitude of 60 s for the
44-mm caliber-shaped charge used in the experiments. To a first approximation, the current flow can be modeled by an electric arc. An
electric circuit model can describe the current flow behavior with respect to the electric impedance and allows designing an electrical
circuit adequate for the time slot. By the analogy of a wire explosion the necessary current magnitude for an effective jet disruption with
respect to the interaction time slot can be estimated to begin at 300 kA. For the tip portion of the shaped charge jet, the time of effective
current injection is very short. When the current starts to set in, the jet tip is already passing the back electrode plate. For this reason,
an effective distortion of the jet tip represents a challenge that has to be mastered.
Index TermsElectric armor, electromagnetic armor, shaped charge jet disruption.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. EXPERIMENT
For the experiments, a well-characterized type of shaped
charge with a copper liner of 44 mm in diameter is used. Tip
and tail position
of the shaped charge jet can
position
mm
mm
s
s
mm
mm
(1)
(2)
Fig. 1. Shaped charge jet dynamics with respect to the stationary position of
front (left black line) and back electrode plate (right black line). Principle sketch
for an undisturbed jet.
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Fig. 2. Shaped charge jet location as a function of time and corresponding electric current flow measurement.
The focus of the diagnostic is on the evolution of the jet distortion with respect to time after passing the loaded electrode
module. So, behind the electrodes, a large space is left to take
X-ray images of the shaped charge jet. At a distance of 600 mm
behind the electrode module, RHA witness plates are placed
in order to measure residual penetration. In every experiment,
three X-ray flashes are triggered with a time delay of 20 s.
The X-ray channels are aligned on a vertical axis with the
same distance. So, three images of the target structure and the
shaped charge jet appear on the same X-ray film. The X-rays are
taken at 100, 120, and 140 s after the ignition of the shaped
charge and allow to observe the evolution of the jet distortion
with respect to time.
Two tests with no voltage applied and three tests with a high
voltage of 16 kV are performed. The tests show little spread. For
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Fig. 3. Time evolution of an undistorted shaped charge jet after passing of an unloaded electrode plate arrangement at 100, 120, and 140 s after ignition of the
shaped charge. The local velocity of the jet particles is indicated at the limits of the highlighted regions and for the jet tip.
Fig. 4. Time evolution of jet distortion after passing of a loaded electrode plate arrangement at 100, 120, and 140 s after ignition of the shaped charge. The local
velocity of the jet particles is indicated at the limits of the highlighted regions and for the jet tip.
Fig. 6. Circuit model for current flow initiated by a shaped charge jet.
Fig. 5. Shaped charge jet location as a function of time and corresponding electric current flow measurement.
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onset of wire explosion like effects can be expected for a constant current 300 kA. This value may be used as an indicator
for the required current magnitude for effective shaped charge
jet disruption.
Although the jet tip portion might be smaller than the average jet diameter, the jet tip will remain hard to disrupt effectively. This is not only because the tip part of the jet needs the
shortest time to pass the electrode module, but the current sets
in as late as the tip reaches the back electrodebut then the
tip is already leaving the electrode plate again. So even when
the current would not rise in a sinusoidal manner, but instead, a
constant current would instantaneously set in, the current flow
through the tip portion is limited to a very short time. In contrast
to the rest of the jet, the tip traveling time through the electrode
plates is not used for effective current injection. The effective
disruption of the jet tip portion will remain a challenge.
IV. CONCLUSION