Ignition and Breakup Behavior of Fuel Tank by Reactive Material Fragment

Abstract

Combined studies on the behavior of reactive material fragment damaging fuel tank are performed, experimentally and theoretically. Firstly, ballistic experiments on reactive material fragment impacting and igniting fuel tank are conducted. The results show the reactive material fragment with the velocity above 732m/s can perforate the LY12 aluminum wall 10mm thick and then ignites the fuel/air mixture inside, causing breakup of fuel tank. However, the tungsten alloy fragment mass matched fails to ignite the fuel at a velocity of 933m/s. Secondly, the ignition enhancement behavior is analyzed and discussed, based on a fracture model of reactive materials and a fuel/air ignition model. For the mechanism considerations, traditional inert fragment emphasizes on the kinetic energy effect. However, reactive material fragment enhances lethality by incorporating the terminal defeat mechanisms of kinetic energy and chemical energy, and the convective heat conduction between reacting reactive materials and fuel/air mixture is the main ignition mechanism.