Penetration capability of shaped charge loaded with different high-energy explosives

This paper reports the characteristics and penetration performance evaluation of different pressed composite HE explosives. Three kinds of explosives with different gurney energy including RDX-based, HMX-based and CL-20-based were selected. Detonation parameters such as velocity of detonation, pressure of detonation and gurney energy were obtained by cylinder test. Shaped charge of 82 mm caliber with a wave shaper and a 55° single conical copper liner were designed for evaluating the penetration capability loaded with each explosive. Penetration experiments were carried out at 450 mm standoff distance on medium carbon steel ingots after a simulated prediction. The results presented a higher penetration capability of CL-20-based explosive, which increased about 17% and 3% in penetration depth compared with RDX-based and HMX-based explosives, respectively.