Study on the effect of rotating shaped charge liner material on penetration depth using the SPH numerical simulation method

In this paper, the effect of liner material on the penetration capability of rotating shaped charge warheads was investigated. The authors employed 3D simulations using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) mesh-free method in Ansys Autodyn to study the influence of liner materials on rotating shaped charge warheads. The subject of study is a 40 mm caliber shaped charge warhead, with two liner material options: copper and steel. The numerical simulations were conducted at different rotational speeds about the warhead’s axis of symmetry: non-rotating, 2000 rpm, 4000 rpm, 6000 rpm, 8000 rpm, 10000 rpm, 12000 rpm, and 14000 rpm. The simulation results indicate that as rotational speed increases, the penetration depth into steel decreases. Copper liners exhibit superior steel penetration compared to steel liners. However, when the rotational speed reaches 10000 rpm, the penetration depth of the copper-lined warhead is not significantly greater than that of the steel-lined warhead. This research method can be applied to optimize the structural design of rotating shaped charge warheads.