Effects of structural parameters on energy release characteristics of explosively driven Al/PTFE energetic material casing warhead

This study investigates the influence of structural parameters on the energy release characteristics of warheads with aluminum/polytetrafluoroethylene (Al/PTFE) energetic casings. This study adopted a numerical simulation method to compare the performance of an Al/PTFE-cased warhead against a bare explosive charge. The simulations demonstrated that the energetic casing significantly enhances the shockwave overpressure with an average increase of 24.7% compared to bare charges. Field tests were conducted to validate the numerical model. The comparison between simulated and experimental overpressure data yielded maximum and minimum relative errors of 23% and 2.58%, respectively. The results indicate that at shorter distances from the detonation center, higher length-to-diameter (L/D) ratios generate greater overpressure. Conversely, at greater distances, warheads with lower L/D ratios show a slower attenuation of overpressure. For the parameters investigated, the optimal configuration for maximizing peak overpressure was identified as an L/D ratio of 2.0 combined with a casing thickness of 0.12D, where D is the charge diameter. Furthermore, a distinct bimodal relationship between casing thickness and overpressure was identified, with a local optimum at 0.04D and a global optimum at 0.12D. These results offer critical guidance for the structural design of Al/PTFE energetic-cased warheads, while providing a basis for designing optimized warheads.