Effect of interior surface finish on the break-up of commercial shaped charge liners

A series of experiments aimed at understanding the influence of the liner interior surface finish on the break-up of shaped charge jets has been completed. The experiments used a standard 81-mm shaped charge design, loaded with LX-14 high explosive; incorporating high-precision copper shaped charged liners. The results indicate that a significant reduction of jet break-up time occurs between a surface finish of 99.30 microinches and 375.65 microinches. Surface finishes of 4.78, 44.54 and 99.30 microinches produced significantly better ductility and associated break-up times than the 375.65-microinch finish. The baseline production process high-precision liners were measured to have an average surface finish of 44.54 microinches. The results show that for the shaped charge warhead geometry and explosive combination investigated, some care must be taken in respect to surface finish, but that very fine surface finishes do not significantly improve the jet ductility and associated break-up times