A study on the effectiveness of explosive reactive armour against the penetration of long-rod projectiles

Abstract

The effect of explosive reactive armour (ERA) on the penetration of a long-rod projectile is investigated using computational techniques. This area of research is especially relevant to main battle tanks as a large portion of them utilise ERA which is effective against both kinetic and chemical munitions. The ERA package consists of steel flyer plates sandwiched between an explosive layer that detonates on projectile impact. The influence of the stand-off distance and detonation delay and variation of the angle of impact is assessed to determine the overall effectiveness of the ERA package. The analysis presented in this study allows for a better understanding of impact dynamics and can be used in the development and optimisation of ERA as well as projectiles designed to defeat it.