Modeling Reactive Metal Fragment Effects in Endgame Codes

Photo by Senior Airman Justyn Freeman

Presented: October 14, 2020 12:00 pm (ET)
Presented by: Patrick Buckley, Patrick Buckley

Reactive metal fragments (RMFs) are created from mixtures of powders that are first pressed and then sintered into solid form. When heated sufficiently, RMFs can react violently and release large quantities of chemical energy. Per unit mass of material, RMF energy release can exceed TNT. In ballistics applications, RMF reactions are triggered when an RMF impacts something solid at speeds ranging from 1000 to 1500 meters per second. Thus, RMF can enhance damage to vulnerable components by combining kinetic energy transfer and chemical energy release. In addition, the chemical energy release can damage nearby components as well as those impacted directly. Enhanced damage to components hit directly by RMFs can be handled by adjusting their standard fragility functions – no new algorithms are required in endgame codes to do that. However, modeling damage to nearby components not directly hit does require new algorithms in endgame codes.  This webinar presents a method for assessing damage caused by chemical energy release from RMF impacts. The parameters in the model are evaluated parametrically in two endgame scenarios to examine potential lethality increases for RMF compared to inert metal fragments.

 

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