why do depleted uranium shells own so hard?

Question

i know that many Armor Peircing rounds are made of Depleted Uranium, but that makes it so good at penetrating thick vehicle armor?

Answer 1

Staballoy (DU ammunition is an alloy - not pure DU) is an extremely dense and strong material. This means that a very thin and strong penetrator can be made from it. (Experiment with how much force is required to punch a hole in some cardboard using small vs. large pens.)

DU has another advantage in armor penetration - it is self-sharpening on impact. Thus the tip remains sharp instead of mushrooming out.

All of these make it the post effective ammunition for penetrating heavy armor there is.

BTW - the radioactive hazards of DU are grossly exaggerated.

Answer 2

It is a very dense material compared to steel, it is also heavier, but the flip side is that we litter the terrain with uranium! All be it, it is depleted (unable to make a nuke weapon out of it in this condition) However, with a proper centrifuge I've heard it could be possible to turn it into a weapons grade material!!! What the heck! I already wrote the DOD with no response to whether it can be or can not be used for possible weapons in the future, and hopefully they have a clean up crew for environmental reasons.

Answer 3

Only sabot rounds are made of DU (HEP/HESH and other classes have different design goals and therefore compositions). The reason it's good at killing armor is not solely because of its density, but because the stuff is pyrophoric. That means it ignites on contact.

The stuff should be banned. It's just as dangerous to dismounts and the environment as it is to target vehicles. There are plenty of other ways to kill armor.

Answer 4

Densest metal on Earth

More kinetic energy kept per round

More momentum upon impact

EDIT: Murray... explosive armor, i.e. blazer armor, is designed to disrupt shaped charge attacks. It doesn't do squat against sabot rounds.

Answer 5

The density of DU is what makes it so good as the armour isn't designed for such an impact. Explosive armour has been designed to counter-act that, but I don't know how effective it is.

Answer 6

It's a very dense metal. This gives a projectile more mass and thus more momentum for a given velocity compared with a less dense metal.

Answer 7

They are very heavy and carry a lot of kinetic energy. Uranium has a specific gravity of about 22
Gold is 19.3
Tungsten (Wolfram) 19.6
Silver 13
Lead 11
Steel 7,5

Answer 8

density. depleted uranium is very dense.