Multi-Phase Blast Munitions via RM/HE Synergy

The next generation of Army munitions is aligned with DoD priorities and aims at increasing overmatch capabilities by extending range, including guidance systems while increasing lethality via blast effects. These objectives are typically not compatible in systems sharing a fixed volume and weight. Many munition systems have received propulsion and guidance upgrades over the years; however, most of those upgrades did not address warhead performance to combat emerging threats to our warfighters. The time and cost of developing a new munitions system with increased range and increased lethality utilizing conventional warhead technology are insurmountable given the required development and qualification schedules in this age of fiscal responsibility. A move towards the development and fielding of high-performance warheads in legacy systems is a novel approach to address range, precision, ship capacity and overall responsiveness to new and existing threats that will reduce the time and cost to field the upgrade. MATSYS is a leader in the design and production of Reactive Materials (RM) for the DoD. RM is an enabling technology that, upon incorporation into warheads, enables significant performance enhancements by maintaining the traditional kinetic fragment kill mechanism and simultaneously adding a reactive component that offers blast and incendiary damage mechanisms. One of the most desirable strategies to achieve Army objectives is to incorporate dual-function materials, such as structural reactive materials (SRM), which offer the potential to act as reactive steel replacements. This proposed work is a systematic, controlled study of the critical engineering design parameters in an explosive/reactive materials system, designed to quantify the effect of these parameters on the primary blast and total energy release of the system.   Among the key parameters are 1) charge to mass ratio, 2) explosive characteristics, 3) degree of confinement, and 4) test scale. In Phase I, we will perform a detailed investigation of these factors to quantify their relative effect on RM reactivity.