60 mm thermobaric mortar round fragmentation effect

Abstract. One of the basic requirements for high explosive fragmentation projectiles is their fragmentation effect. The subject of the fragment formation process, known as fragmentation, and its optimization is an actual topic and has long been of interest in the military field. There are three categories of metallic casing fragmentation: natural, controlled, and preformed fragmentation. Due to the increasing number of conflicts in urban or built-up areas, the development of projectiles with controlled and preformed fragmentation with a defined lethal zone and a high density of effective fragments in this zone has been intensified in recent years. This paper is focused on experimental analysis of the 60 mm thermobaric mortar round fragmentation effect including fragment velocity measurement and verification of the lethal effect of individual fragments at four different distances from the point of mortar round detonation. Three different types of mortar shell casing designs were tested: shear-controlled grids on the outer surface of the casing, uniform thickness-controlled grid layer placed between the casing and explosive, and finally, an inner layer made of bearing balls in a polymer matrix inside the casing of the mortar round.