Experimental and numerical study on jet properties and penetration of double-layered shaped charge

Double-layered shaped charge (DLSC) is a special type of shaped charge which has been recently attracted to enhance the penetration performance. The DLSC consists of a co-axial double-layered charge composed of outer high-velocity explosive and inner low-velocity explosive. In this paper, numerical simulations and experiments are carried out to investigate the usefulness of the DLSC compare to an ordinary shaped charge (OSC) at different stand-off distances. Jet properties of shaped charges are measured by simulation models and compared with the experimental penetration depths. It was found that the penetration performance strongly depends on the existence of jet breakup and the DLSCs performed better than the OSC only when no jet breakup occurs before reaching the target. The comparison study between the simulations and experiments also revealed that the jet properties such as kinetic energy, cumulative jet mass, and the initial jet breakup distance are highly related to the penetration performance.