Evaluation of Held’s Criteria (V2D) vs. Penetration for a Small Shaped Charge Warhead

Abstract

Rocket propelled and gun-launched grenades are a particular concern on the battlefield because of the severe reaction that occurs when a munition is impacted by a shaped charge jets. High-precision surrogates representing two groups of warheads were developed to provide repeatable results during Insensitive Munitions (IM) Shaped Charge Jet (SCJ) testing. The final results for the 81mm RPG surrogate, and the preliminary results for the 40mm gun-launched surrogate were previously reported at IBS. This paper describes the development and testing of a surrogate 40mm SC warhead and compares it to Held’s initiation criteria commonly called V2D. A combination of analytical and continuum hydrocode modeling was used to characterize the jets of the surrogate warheads, which were subsequently fired through aluminum stripper plates to erode jet mass and velocity to mimic the V2D of the actual threat.. Flash radiography was used to capture and evaluate the jets. Various thickness aluminum stripper plates were tested to determine the variation of V2D as a function of stripper plate thickness.