Experimental and numerical study on the meso-scopic characteristics of metal composites jets by a shaped charge

There are significant mesostructural differences between metal composites and traditional homogeneous materials. To study the mesocharacteristics of metal composites during the formation of a shaped charge jet, an early collapse experiment was designed and executed in this study to recover the initially shocked tungsten-copper (W-Cu) liner. The early jet was subjected to microscopic observation and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy tests, and the results indicated an uneven distribution of components of the W-Cu materials under explosive loading. To adequately characterize the mesostructure of the metal composites, a three-dimensional (3D) mesodiscrete model generation program was developed based on the random particles' principle. Mesoscale numerical simulations were carried out by using the 3D arbitrary Lagrange-Euler method along with the tracer technique. The results indicate that the average velocity of the Cu phase was higher than that of the W phase and led to a phase segregation and composition gradient in the W-Cu jet during its process of formation.