High-Density Metals and Metallic Composites for Improved Fragmentation Submunitions

摘要

The fragmentation of cases (50.8-mm-id) made of tungsten, a tungsten alloy, and depleted uranium (D-38) can be controlled, and velocities greater than 1 mm/ mu s can be achieved for lethal size fragment weights. Fragmentation was controlled by internal grooves, by internal screens, and by a spheroid-in-weak-matrix scheme. A thin polymer liner was used inside of a grooved tungsten case in one experiment; this system performed exceptionally well. The ease of fabricating cases with D-38 or with the tungsten-alloy spheroid-in-matrix scheme offers an attractive advantage over tungsten and tungsten alloy.