426 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 43, NO.

1, JANUARY 2007

Electric Armor Against Shaped Charges:

Analysis of Jet Distortion With Respect
to Jet Dynamics and Current Flow
Matthias Wickert

Fraunhofer-Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut (EMI), 79104 Freiburg, Germany

Shaped charges are a warhead technology often applied to rocket propelled grenades and represent a dangerous threat for armored
vehicles in combat as well as in peace-keeping operations. Their armor piercing performance rests upon an explosively induced collapse
of a metallic liner to a stretching jet with very high particle velocities. A copper jet produced by a shaped charge can be distorted by high
electric currents injected into the jet by means of spaced electrode plates connected to a high voltage capacitor. In tests carried out at
Fraunhofer EMI, a shaped charge with a well characterized jet was used for the experiments in order to examine the current flow through
the jet and its effect on the jet evolution. The measured current flow is related to the jet dynamics and the distortion pattern observed by
multiple flash X-ray images. As expected, the current flow starts when the jet tip reaches the back electrode plate. No significant change
of the current flow is observed at the characteristic jet break-up time. The current flow continues after the tail of the copper jet has left
the electrodes and resembles a damped sinusoidal. A distortion of the jet is observed where the jet particles are not aligned along the jet
axis. Instead the particles are stretched orthogonally to the jet axis with increased separation along the jet axis. The tip part of the jet
is hardly affected. The jet distortion is analyzed with respect to jet dynamics and current flow which allows formulating criteria for the
design of electric armor systems. The current injection effective for jet distortion is limited to a time slot of a magnitude of 60 s for the
44-mm caliber-shaped charge used in the experiments. To a first approximation, the current flow can be modeled by an electric arc. An
electric circuit model can describe the current flow behavior with respect to the electric impedance and allows designing an electrical
circuit adequate for the time slot. By the analogy of a wire explosion the necessary current magnitude for an effective jet disruption with
respect to the interaction time slot can be estimated to begin at 300 kA. For the tip portion of the shaped charge jet, the time of effective
current injection is very short. When the current starts to set in, the jet tip is already passing the back electrode plate. For this reason,
an effective distortion of the jet tip represents a challenge that has to be mastered.
Index Terms—Electric armor, electromagnetic armor, shaped charge jet disruption.

I. INTRODUCTION
HE IDEA to utilize electrical energy to distort a shaped
T charge jet was described by E. H. Walker in 1973 [1]. The
experimental proof of the potential of an electrical current to
distort and disrupt a shaped charge was given by X-ray images,
e.g., from C. E. Pollock in 1994 [2] or from G. A. Shvetsov
in 1999 [3]. The aim of the following test series was to perform
experiments with shaped charge jet distortion in order to analyze
the interaction of a current injected through a front and a back
electrode plate with respect to the jet dynamics, as indicated in
Fig. 1. For the test series the electrical equipment available in
the laboratory stock was used, thereby tests with moderate jet
distortion were realized and the analysis of these tests allows
formulating design criteria required for an electric armor system
with effective jet disruption.
II. EXPERIMENT
For the experiments, a well-characterized type of shaped
charge with a copper liner of 44 mm in diameter is used. Tip
position and tail position of the shaped charge jet can
be described with respect to the time of the ignition pulse for
the shaped charge by
mm s mm (1)
mm s mm (2)
where s denotes the working time of the igniter.
The particularization of the shaped charge is to be expected
at s s after ignition.
The experimental setup is sketched in Fig. 2. The shaped
charge jet is positioned at the left side and points at the spaced
plate electrode module. Two metal plates made of 10-mm
copper are separated by a 50-mm plastic spacer. In this test
arrangement, the plate normal is tilted by 60 relative to the jet
axis resulting in an effective gap of 100 mm along the jet axis.
High voltage capacitors are connected in parallel to form
a total capacity F. The capacitors are protected
from the shaped charge by a metal plate wall with a cable
feed-through for the electrical connection. This arrangement
results in a minimum cable length which attributes to the total
circuit inductivity. The capacitors are loaded with a voltage
of 16 kV resulting in an available electrical energy of
100 kJ according to

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2006.887650 (3)

0018-9464/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE

WICKERT: ELECTRIC ARMOR AGAINST SHAPED CHARGES
Fig. 1. Shaped charge jet dynamics with respect to the stationary position of
front (left black line) and back electrode plate (right black line). Principle sketch
for an undisturbed jet.
Fig. 2. Shaped charge jet location as a function of time and corresponding elec-
tric current flow measurement.
The focus of the diagnostic is on the evolution of the jet dis-
tortion with respect to time after passing the loaded electrode
module. So, behind the electrodes, a large space is left to take
X-ray images of the shaped charge jet. At a distance of 600 mm
behind the electrode module, RHA witness plates are placed
in order to measure residual penetration. In every experiment,
three X-ray flashes are triggered with a time delay of 20 s.
The X-ray channels are aligned on a vertical axis with the
same distance. So, three images of the target structure and the
shaped charge jet appear on the same X-ray film. The X-rays are
taken at 100, 120, and 140 s after the ignition of the shaped
charge and allow to observe the evolution of the jet distortion
with respect to time.
Two tests with no voltage applied and three tests with a high
voltage of 16 kV are performed. The tests show little spread. For
427
the analysis, the X-ray pictures of one exemplary test without
and with high voltage are presented.
Without any high voltage applied to the electrodes, the jet
does not show any significant distortion in Fig. 3. At 100 s the
particularization of the jet is observed. At 120 s the jet particles
are separated. The elongated particles are oriented along the jet
axis. At 140 s the particles appear a bit less regular due to
the effect of long traveling time. The central portion of the jet
at the different times is highlighted. The residual penetration
measurement yielded twice 116-mm RHA.
With a high voltage of 16 kV applied, a significant distortion
of the shaped charge jet is observed, compare Fig. 4. At 100 s
the status of the jet particularization is more enhanced due to the
current effect. In the central portion of the jet, the length of the
particles is reduced and their separation has progressed faster.
The later images reveal that jet distortion grows and that the
particles tend to become stretched orthogonally to the jet axis.
At 140 s the distortion effect is the most obvious with very
large gaps between irregular cloud-like shaped particles. In the
X-ray images available, the distortion effect is strongest in the
central portion of the jet. For better comparison of particles with
similar velocities, the corresponding central portion of the jet is
highlighted again. The back part of the jet is still passing through
the electrodes in the X-ray images available and, thus, distortion
may still evolve there. On the other side, the tip portion of the jet
has passed the electrode plates already. Nevertheless the tip is
hardly affected by the loaded electrode module. The application
of the high voltage is correlated by a decrease of penetration
depth in the three tests to 68-, 62-, and 60-mm RHA. At long
stand off, a large spread of penetration depth for shaped charges
is common, but the positive correlation indicates a performance
reduction due to the electrical distortion effect.
III. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
For the interaction analysis, with respect to the jet dynamics
and the current flow, the position of the jet tip and the jet tail
according to (1) and (2) are plotted in Fig. 5 as a function of
the time elapsed since the ignition of the shaped charge. Thus, a
vertical line between tip and tail position visualizes the jet’s lo-
cation and momentary length with respect to time. At a distance
of 175 and 275 mm, the position of the front electrode and the
back electrode plate are indicated. The onset of the current flow
is to be expected when the jet tip reaches the back electrode.
The jet location is also visualized in the diagram for the char-
acteristic particularization time—and for the time when the jet
tail leaves the front electrode. Taking tail exit as the end point
of effective current flow for jet distortion, the magnitude for the
time slot for effective current injection into the jet is of the order
of 60 s for the 44-mm shaped charge. Now, focus on the current
graph plotted into the diagram. As to be expected, the current
starts to flow at the moment when the jet reaches the back elec-
trode. The current starts to rise in a sinusoidal manner. When the
jet breaks up at the characteristic particularization time no sig-
nificant effect on the current flow is observed. The current rises
further and it still rises, after the expected time for the jet tail
leaving the front electrode at 115 s. The maximum current of
210 kA is reached at 125 s. The current follows the sine curve
and falls to zero at 215 s—although the jet is expected to have
428 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 43, NO. 1, JANUARY 2007

Fig. 3. Time evolution of an undistorted shaped charge jet after passing of an unloaded electrode plate arrangement at 100, 120, and 140 s after ignition of the
shaped charge. The local velocity of the jet particles is indicated at the limits of the highlighted regions and for the jet tip.

Fig. 4. Time evolution of jet distortion after passing of a loaded electrode plate arrangement at 100, 120, and 140 s after ignition of the shaped charge. The local
velocity of the jet particles is indicated at the limits of the highlighted regions and for the jet tip.

Fig. 6. Circuit model for current flow initiated by a shaped charge jet.

As a consequence, an electric armor design against shaped

Fig. 5. Shaped charge jet location as a function of time and corresponding elec-
tric current flow measurement.
also passed through the back electrodes at 160 s. And even
after the time depicted in Fig. 5, the current continues to fall
and rise and follows a damped sinusoidal. The observed time
behavior of the current flow indicates that the current flow is
triggered by the shaped charge jet but that the time evolution of
the current flow is not restricted to jet particles traveling through
the gap between the electrodes. After the current is triggered, it
evolves similar to the current of an electric arc that is capable
of sustaining its flow as long as the local conditions support the
creation of carriers of electric charges. The enlarging separation
distances between the jet particles after the characteristic partic-
ularization time do not seem to effect the current flow substan-
tially—neither does any gap between the jet and the crater hole
edge in the electrode plates.
charge jets has also to avoid parasitic current paths, where the
current does not flow through the jet particles and, thus, does
not contribute to the jet disruption.
An electric circuit model of a damped sinusoidal discharge,
like in Fig. 6, is capable of describing the observed current flow
after the triggering event by very few electric impedance pa-
rameters like the capacity , the inductivity , and the ohmic
resistance . An electric arc can be modeled with a conduc-
tivity being dependent on time. But, since in a simplistic
view, an electric arc can be regarded as a high voltage switch, it
might even be compared with a short circuit switch. Fig. 7 shows
good agreement of the circuit model prediction with the mea-
sured current flow. In this diagram, the time scale is extended to
1000 s and so the damped sinusoidal form of the current can
be recognized better.
Since there is still plenty of electric energy within the cir-
cuit after the shaped charge jet has left the electrode plates, the
WICKERT: ELECTRIC ARMOR AGAINST SHAPED CHARGES 429

onset of wire explosion like effects can be expected for a con-

stant current 300 kA. This value may be used as an indicator
for the required current magnitude for effective shaped charge
jet disruption.
Although the jet tip portion might be smaller than the av-
erage jet diameter, the jet tip will remain hard to disrupt effec-
tively. This is not only because the tip part of the jet needs the
shortest time to pass the electrode module, but the current sets
in as late as the tip reaches the back electrode—but then the
tip is already leaving the electrode plate again. So even when
the current would not rise in a sinusoidal manner, but instead, a
constant current would instantaneously set in, the current flow
through the tip portion is limited to a very short time. In contrast
to the rest of the jet, the tip traveling time through the electrode
plates is not used for effective current injection. The effective
Fig. 7. Comparison of measured current flow I and capacitor voltage U (top)
with circuit model prediction (bottom).
disruption of the jet tip portion will remain a challenge.

IV. CONCLUSION
available electrical energy was utilized for jet disruption only to
The interaction analysis with respect to the jet dynamics has
a partial extent.
led to design criteria for an electrical armor arrangement. For
For effective energy utilization an overdamped oscillation
the specific jet with a caliber of 44 mm, the time slot for effec-
would be more preferable—with a half period time about
tive current injection is limited to a magnitude of 60 s. In good
the effective time slot for current injection. The half time width
approximation, the current flow can be modeled by an electric
can be approximated by
arc. An electric circuit model can describe the current flow be-
havior with respect to the electric impedance parameters.
(4)
By the analogy of a wire explosion mechanism, the magni-
tude of the necessary current for the onset of a strong jet disrup-
Under the assumption of an identical capacity and the same
tion with respect to time slot for effective current injection can
loading voltage , for corresponding to the effective
be estimated to 300 kA.
time slot the circuit model requires a reduction of the inductivity
The current injection time through the tip portion of the
by a factor of more than 7. Since the cable inductivity is propor-
shaped charge is limited, since when the current flow starts, the
tional to the cable length, an alternative low inductivity design is
tip already leaves the back electrode plate again. The effective
required for the experimental setup. Since the electrical energy
disruption of the jet tip portion represents a challenge to be
stored in the capacitor is proportional to (3) and does not
mastered.
affect according to (4), a high electrical voltage is favor-
The analysis results in criteria for an electric armor design
able for increasing the available electrical energy. In the tests
against a specific shaped charge. But the procedure is general
performed, only a modest jet disruption was observed with an
and also allows evaluating electric armor designs against a va-
enhanced particularization that may be attributed to the pinch ef-
riety of shaped charge threats with different jet dynamics.
fect on an electrical conductor at high currents. Although some
radial stretching of the jet particles was observed, for the de-
feat of a directed energy weapon like a shaped charge jet it is REFERENCES
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If this mechanism can be applied to a copper jet of a shaped

charge with an assumed diameter of 2 mm, whose tip passes the Manuscript received December 16, 2005 (e-mail: wickert@emi.fraunhofer.
100-mm electrode gap with a speed of 7 km/s in s, the de).