Shaped Charges

I'm taking a class and this week we talked a little about shaped charges. I've had zero experience in this field of study and didn't really know much about them beforehand, so I thought I'd post a little about it. This is probably not very exciting (or new) to some people, but I think this stuff is really interesting.

Basically, a shaped charge is when you create a cavity in a block of explosives in order to vectorize the energy of the explosion. (i.e., you can control where and how much damage is created).

Did you know that if you have a crater inside of a block of explosives that it does more damage than a solid block? It seems counter-intuitive. (Shouldn't more explosives = bigger damage?) The Germans figured this out a long time ago, and eventually we've learned a lot more about how to shape these "craters" and even use metal liners in them to create explosives with very specific intentions. The photo at top shows the difference in the damage created from the explosion of a shaped charge, lined shaped charge, and lined shaped charge set at distance.

For example, a wedged-shaped linear charge like the one below could be used to cut a specific slot into or "soften" a concrete wall.


Not only is the type of explosive important (TNT, C4, HBX, RDX, etc.), but so is the shape of the charge, the shape, material, and thickness of the liner, the distance of the explosion from the target, and about a million other factors.

Entire careers can be spent designing/testing shaped charges, their liners, and analyzing the resulting effects from a world of other varying factors. Pretty cool stuff!