Armor materials’ behavior under repetitive dense plasma shots

Abstract

Experiments on the plasma focus device PF-12 have been carried out to investigate changes in the structure of the surface and bulk of tungsten and tungsten doped with 1% lanthanum oxide after repeated powerful deuterium plasma shots (8, 25 and 100). The surface morphology of the targets exposed to plasma streams is analyzed by electron and optical microscopy. Due to the plasma effect, different surface structures, such as wave-like structures, a melted layer, a mesh of microcracks, droplets, craters, crevices and holes, appear. The change of cross-section hardness after a number of shots in different materials is investigated.