Controlling the Fragment Dispersion for a Fragmentation Warhead and its Effect on Lethality

Abstract

Effectiveness of a fragmentation warhead is generally related to the fragmentation characteristics such as the number, mass and velocity of the fragments. Distribution is also an important but mostly ignored feature of the fragmentation. Especially, in most of the lethality or vulnerability calculations, fragmentation of a warhead is assumed to have a homogeneous distribution. In other words, the assumption says that the fragments dispersion occurs such that fragments are uniformly or randomly distributed in a solid angle. However, this assumption does not work effectively in all conditions. Particularly, for some controlled fragmentation warheads used against relatively small targets, discrete dispersion of the fragments should be considered during effectiveness calculations. In this study, it is aimed to show that a homogeneous fragmentation distribution should be obtained as much as possible when using pre-shaped fragments for higher effectiveness. Also, the significance of homogeneity in fragment distribution in addition to the mass and number of fragments is presented with the methodology, analyses and comparisons.