Drop-hammer impact sensitivity and damage effect of two PTFE-matrix reactive materials

Abstract

To study the impact sensitivity and damage effect of PTFE-matrix energetic materials, PTFE-matrix specimens and liners were prepared by molding-vacuum sintering to carry out drop-hammer and impact experiments. The results show that the two metal additives contributed to reducing the impact sensitivity of Al/PTFE. The energy release level of Al/Ni/PTFE and Al/W/PTFE with the same metal content was different at different drop heights. In addition, the collision process, black burning marks and carbon indicate that the energetic liner reacted during the impact process. All perforations were petal-shaped holes because of better radial expansion effect of products. The seven groups of energetic liners can penetrate 3 mm steel plate. The Al/W/PTFE liner with volume fraction of 5% W had the strongest reaming capacity due to its higher strength and density than Al/PTFE liner. The 3 mm steel plate with low strength failed prematurely and the impact energy did not initiate the Ni-Al intermetallic reaction because of low sensitivity of Al/Ni/PTFE. Therefore, the energy release of Al/Ni/PTFE was lower than that of Al/W/PTFE. Only Al/Ni/PTFE liner with volume fraction of 15% Ni can penetrate 10 mm steel plate due to its higher strength and density compared with Al/PTFE and other Al/Ni/PTFE liners. But different with Al/W/PTFE liners, the energy released by the reaction of Al/PTFE initiated the Ni-Al combination, which greatly increased the energy release of the Al/Ni/PTFE and provided better damage effect. The damage effect of reactive materials on target is affected by its strength, density and energy release.