A 7.62 mm energetic bullet filled with PTFE-Mg-based reactive materials for anti-drone application

• Published in: Journal of materials research and technology 2024-05, Vol.30, p.8749-8759
• Main Authors: Cai, Yue, Feng, Xinya, He, Chuan, Zhang, Song, Li, Shukui, Liu, Jinxu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 7.62 mm energetic bullets; Destructive effect; Energy release performance; PTFE-Mg-based reactive materials
• ISSN: 2238-7854
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmrt.2024.05.240

To counter thin and lightweight targets such as drone swarms, a specialized design of 7.62 mm energetic bullets has been developed. These bullets utilize reactive materials as the core encased in a copper jacket, offering the advantages of impact-induced energy release, multiple damage, and lightweight. The study involved the preparation of three energetic bullets using the reactive materials (different ratio of PTFE-Mg-Bi2O3 and PTFE-Mg-Bi2O3-W) and systematically evaluating their destructive effect. The results showed that three energetic bullets (EB-A, EB-B, and EB-W) successfully penetrated two-layer stacked 2 mm 50# cold-rolled steel targets, and the respective reaction durations observed during the penetration process were 4.1, 3.5, and 9.2 ms. After armor-piercing, energetic bullets released an amount of chemical energy and produced fragmentation, deflagration reactions, and overpressure destructive effects. To further investigate the damage mechanism of the three reactive material-filled bullets, a detailed analysis of PTFE-Mg-based reactive material, such as reaction energy, burning rate, combustion temperature field, reaction overpressure, was conducted. Our work provides a comprehensive understanding of energy release performance of the reactive materials and damage behavior of the energetic bullets. [Display omitted] •Designed an energetic lightweight 7.62 mm bullet with the reactive materials as the core for anti-drone application.•The energetic bullets demonstrate good armor-piercing capability, substantial post-target energy release, high-temperature ablation, and overpressure effects.•The energy release performances and reaction mechanisms of PTFE-Mg-Bi2O3 and PTFE-Mg-Bi2O3–W reactive materials were revealed.