High Performance Nanostructured Tantalum for Warhead Applications

Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs) are an important component of today’s military. They are capable of penetrating many inches (even feet) of armor. Needless to say, high performance is important and continued improvement requires materials that can perform under severe conditions. Budget and other concerns make finding a solution difficult, but a recently identified class of materials, called nanostructured materials, holds great promise. However, to-date, exploitation of nanomaterials has been hindered by a lack of suitable production technologies and high costs. Phase I of this SBIR demonstrated the feasibility of using a radically new, yet simple, approach to produce nanocrystalline tantalum that is greatly superior and cost effective when compared to competing technologies. High Velocity Deformation (HVD) has been shown to produce micron-sized particles composed entirely of nanocrystalline structures, using commercially available machining equipment. As such, these materials can be processed with standard consolidation equipment/processes and thereby avoid the expensive equipment and procedures required for nano-sized particles. Under Phase I, NanoDynamics produced over 1 kilogram of nanocrystalline tantalum and explored options for consolidation into liner plates. Phase II will focus on optimizing and scale-up of production, exploring consolidation approaches, as well as producing tantalum plate for explosive testing by the USAF.