How dense is depleted uranium (DU)? (density, weight, specific gravity)?

Question

..compared to other materials such as titanium, diamond, quartz, etc? Does it have a high melting point?

Answer 1

Depleted Uranium (DU) is for all effects and purposes the same as naturally occuring uranium, U238. The density of uranium or DU is about 19 gm/cm3, which is much denser than titanium (4.5 gm/cm3), diamond (3.5 gm/cm3), or quartz (2.7 gm/cm3). By contrast, lead (at 11.3 gm/cm3) is only just over half as dense as DU and even mercury (at 13.5 gm/cm3) is not quite 2/3 the density of DU -- uranium is amazingly dense, being very near that of gold (19.3 gm/cm3).

Uranium melts at about 1132 degrees C, which is lower than Titaium (3050), diamond (6900), or quartz (1600).

DU is used for armor-penetrating ammunition because it has such a very high density. High density is desireable in armor penetrationg ammunition because the same mass of bullet can be smaller, meaning it will have less air drag and therefore go farther and have a flatter (straighter, more line-of-sight) trajectory to the target and retain more of its energy until it reaches the target, and upon impacting the target applies all this energy to a much smaller area, which makes it penetrate further. All of these are very desireable attributes for armor-penetrating ammunition.

DU is slowly being phased out in favor of tungsten for projectiles. DU is similar in density to tungsten (which has a density of 19.3 gm/cm3) and is DU is easier to work with (much lower melting point than tungsten's (3400 degrees C), and DU is much cheaper and more readily available than tungsten due to DU being an unwanted byproduct of the nuclear power and weapons industries. But DU is also extremely toxic, making it more dangerous to deal with and much more difficult to clean up battlefields or firing ranges when DU has been used. The Navy eliminated use of DU in the Phalanx CIWS in the late 1980's through early 1990's -- Wikipedia says this was due to fire risks, but I heard nothing about that at the time, we were told it was due to the health (toxicity) risks and environmental concerns.

DU is also used in some types of armor for Main Battle Tanks such as the M1 Abrams family -- again the main reason is density, the idea being that incoming rounds or explosives must expend far more energy to displace the armor, leaving less energy to damage the vehicle itself (at least, I'm pretty sure that is the idea behind why it works). It continues to be used in this role rather than being replaced by tungsten, probably mainly because so much more of it is needed in this role and it is far less likely to become widely scattered about in a war, so clean-up of DU armor after a war is much easier than clean-up of DU ammunition.

Answer 2

Density Of Depleted Uranium

Answer 3

Uranium Density

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How dense is depleted uranium (DU)? (density, weight, specific gravity)?
..compared to other materials such as titanium, diamond, quartz, etc? Does it have a high melting point?

Answer 5

depleted uranium contains much less U235 and thus a bit more U238 (which is by far the most abundant). For all practical purposes, you can use the density of natural uranium (mostly U238) for the density of depleted uranium.

For the rest, just Wikipedia it, they have great articles on all the elements.

Answer 6

Depleted uranium is uranium from which the radioactive isotope have been removed. The bulk properties are identical to regular uranium and you can check them out in many places on the web.

Webelements.com lists for uranium a density of 19050 kg/m3 vs 11400 kg/m3 for lead. Melting point is about 1400 C.

You can check its properties and those of other elements you would like to compare with it at:

http://www.webelements.com/

click on the element of interest on the periodic table. The new page that opens has a side bar on the left with links to the description of many properties.

Answer 7

Hi. It's density is about twice that of lead.