Influence of Liner Wall Thickness on the Penetration Performance of PETN-HTPB PBX-based Shaped Charges into Steel Targets

The thickness of a shaped charge liner is one of the essential parameters that must be considered when optimizing penetration depth into a target material. In this paper, experimental and analytical studies have been implemented using shaped charges having copper liner thicknesses ranging from 0.7 to 1.3 mm in an optimization study of the influence of jet characteristics on the achieved penetration depths into steel targets. The shaped charges were filled with equal masses of PETN-polyurethane based PBX explosive charges and fired against steel targets placed at 29 mm stand-off distance. The experimental measurements show that the depth of jet penetration into steel targets increased with liner thickness up to a thickness of 1.1 mm, after which the penetration decreased again. A numerical study was also carried out using the hydrocode Autodyn to model the jets used in the optimization analysis, which accounted for the variation of penetration depth using different liner thicknesses. This analysis also showed why the penetration depth achieved with a liner thickness of 1.0 mm was not optimum due to its non-coherent formed jet. Instead, a liner with a wall thickness of 1.1 mm exhibited the optimum penetration depth of 12.8 cm.