Comparison of Penetrator Alloys for Armor-Piercing Ammunition

Armor-piercing (AP) ammunition, which is designed to penetrate armor, generally carries a hard penetrator within a copper jacket, similar to the jacket which surrounds lead in a conventional projectile. Upon impact on a hard target, the copper case is destroyed, but the penetrator continues its motion and penetrates the target. The most efficient AP ammunition are built with penetrators made from tungsten (very expensive) or depleted uranium (very polluting), and although we know that, in impact dynamanics, the kinetic energy of the projectile plays a fundamental role, we are trying to examine the possibility of using cheaper and cleaner materials.