Study on the Improving Penetration Performance of Tungsten Heavy Alloy Penetrator by Heat Treatment

Abstract

An Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS), which penetrates and sabotages the target by physical energy, consists of a general penetrator using Depleted Uranium (DU) or Tungsten Heavy Alloy (THA) but THA is preferable because of manufacturing and environmental issues. On a THA penetrator, the penetration performance is determined mainly by self-sharpening depending on the hardness and toughness of materials. In particular, the tensile strength and impact strength work as key factors. The correlation coefficient for the penetration performance of the tensile strength was 0.721 and the impact strength was -0.599. The improved penetration performance by additional heat treatment was proven experimentally. Therefore, maintaining elongation over 9 % and tensile strength over 123 kg/mm is desirable, and the impact strength should be less than 6.8 kg·m/cm for good penetration