Comparative Study on the Formation Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Shaped Charge Jets in Different Ambient Media

Abstract

Shaped charges are important in marine engineering, yet the effects of external media and liner geometry on jet formation and penetration remain unclear. This study combines experiments and simulations to systematically investigate jet mechanisms and penetration in water, oil, and air. The work highlights how detonation-wave reflection, transmission, and superposition at medium interfaces influence jet formation, establishes a mapping between jet velocity segments and the liner’s initial position, and proposes a segment-based method to quantify penetration contribution. Results show that the ambient-medium effect is controlled by the impedance ratio: higher impedance increases jet velocity, effective mass fraction, penetration depth, and kinetic energy, while reducing perforation diameter. Increasing liner wall thickness lowers jet-tip velocity, effective length and mass fractions, penetration depth, and kinetic energy, but enlarges perforation diameter. Decreasing the liner cone angle increases the maximum jet-tip velocity but reduces the effective-segment length fraction; effective mass and total kinetic energy vary non-monotonically with cone angle, peaking near 55°, while both perforation diameter and penetration depth decrease as the cone angle increases.

Keywords

Shaped charge jet / Liner / Penetration performance / Effective jet / Ambient medium / Confinement effect

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Harbin Engineering University and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

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