THE ASSESSMENT OF A MODELLING TOOL TO RAPIDLY PREDICT THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EXPLOSIVE REACTIVE ARMOUR

A study has been conducted by Frazer-Nash and Dstl to use high-fidelity numerical simulations to assess a Shaped Charge (SC) vs Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) Fast Running Engineering Model (FREM). The SC vs ERA FREM utilises predictive correlations from open-source literature to estimate the residual penetration of a SC-ERA interaction. High-fidelity numerical simulations were developed in LS-DYNA, which allowed for a detailed assessment of each equation utilised by the FREM. It was shown that the FREM successfully identified most of the interactions between a SC jet and ERA, however, discrepancies were observed between FREM and LS-DYNA outputs when comparing residual penetration depth predictions. An interrogation of the FREM identified the equations which contributed most to this variation, with recommendations provided on ways to improve them. The study determined that with these improvements implemented, and through further validation, the ERA FREM could be developed into a rapid tool for generating suitably accurate predictions of ERA performance against a SC.