Hypervelocity jacketed penetrators

The use of steel jackets was found to significantly improve the penetration efficiency of tungsten alloy rods. Experiments and analyses were conducted with L/D=10 projectiles of constant exterior dimensions at a nominal impact velocity of 2.2 km/s. The fraction of jacket material was varied to see which geometry would have the best performance. For a core-to-jacket diameter ratio (μ) of 0.6, the experiments showed the penetration efficiency (P/KE13) increased by 21% relative to an all-tungsten baseline rod of the same exterior dimensions. Experiments and AUTODYN simulations showed the same penetration efficiency trends. The simulations, however, did not show that the tungsten core outran the jacket, contrary to what was observed in the experiments.