An ideally shaped charge warhead is an effective weapon against armored targets. The use of the gathering energy effect generated by the explosion drives the liner to form a shaped charge jet, which can penetrate the armored target. Existing shaped charge warheads often use a metal liner. Herein, we discuss the characteristics of polymer liners. To study the characteristics of the expansive jet formed by the polymer liner, three polymer materials with different properties—polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), nylon (PA), and polycarbonate (PC)—were selected. Using the smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method and the AUTODYN finite element software, the expansive jet formation by the polymer liners was simulated and verified by experimental data. The polymer jets of the different materials exhibit a certain degree of expansivity; however, due to differences in the material properties, the expansive diameter of the jet and the degree of head compaction differed. The expansive diameter of the PA jet was the smallest, and that of the PTFE jet was larger than that of the PA jet, but with a smaller compactness. The PC jet exhibited the largest expansive diameter and the highest degree of compactness.

Mg-Gd-Y-Zn-Zr Mg alloys show excellent performance in high-end manufacturing due to its strength, hardness and corrosion resistance. However, the hot deformation and dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behaviors of Mg-13.5Gd-3.2Y-2.3Zn-0.5Zr were not studied. For this article, hot compression behavior of homogenized high rare-earth (RE) content Mg-13.5Gd-3.2Y-2.3Zn-0.5Zr (wt%) alloy was investigated by using the Gleeble-3500D thermo-simulation test machine under the temperature of 350–500 °C and the strain rate of 0.001–1 s⁻¹. It was found that the high flow stress corresponded to the low temperature and high strain rate, which showed DRX steady state curve during the hot compression. The hot deformation average activation was 263.17 kJ/mol, which was obtained by the analysis of the hyperbolic constitutive equation and the Zener-Hollomon parameter. From observation of the microstructure, it was found that kink deformation of long period stacking ordered (LPSO) phase was one of the important coordination mechanisms of hot deformation at low temperature. The processing map with the strain of 0.5 was established under the basis of dynamic material model (DMM); it described two high power dissipation domains: one appearing in the temperature range of 370–440 °C and the strain rate range of 0.001–0.006 s⁻¹, the other appearing in the temperature range of 465–500 °C and strain rate range of 0.001–0.05 s⁻¹, in which dynamic recrystallization (DRX) mainly ocurred. The highest degree of DRX was 18% from the observation of the metallographic.

Microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of AZ80 Mg alloy during annular channel angular extrusion (350 °C) and heat treatment with varying parameters were investigated, respectively. The results showed that dynamic recrystallization of Mg grains was developed and the dendritic eutectic β-Mg₁₇Al₁₂ phases formed during the solidification were broken into small β-phase particles after hot extrusion. Moreover, a weak texture with two dominant peaks formed owing to the significant grain refinement and the enhanced activation of pyramidal slip at relative high temperature. The tension tests showed that both the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the extruded alloy were dramatically improved owing to the joint strengthening effect of fine grain and β-phase particles as compared with the homogenized sample. The solution treatment achieved the good plasticity of the alloy resulting from the dissolution of β-phases and the development of more equiaxed grains, while the direct-aging process led to poor alloy elongation as a result of residual eutectic β-phases. After solution and aging treatment, simultaneous bonding strength and plasticity of the alloy were achieved, as a consequence of dissolution of coarse eutectic β-phases and heterogeneous precipitation of a large quantity of newly formed β-phases with both the morphologies of continuous and discontinuous precipitates.

Annular channel angular extrusion has been recently developed as a new single-pass severe plastic deformation method suitable for producing large size cup-shaped parts from cylindrical billets. In this study, the novel technology was successfully applied to commercial AZ80 Mg alloy at 300 °C, and microstructure, texture evolution, and mechanical properties were investigated. Due to severe shear deformation, the initial microstructure, including the coarse grains and large eutectic β-phases, was greatly refined. The strong basal texture formed during the initial deformation stage was modified into a weak tilted dynamic texture. During the deformation process, fine β-particles separated from eutectic phases effectively hindered the grain boundary migration and rotation, enhancing the grain refinement and texture weakening. More than 63% of the microhardness increase was achieved in this extruded part. Also, tensile tests showed the yield strength and elongation in both directions (transverse and longitudinal) of extruded part were improved more than 2.5 times, and the ultimate tensile strength was improved more than 2 times, compared to the initial material state. The improved material properties were mainly attributed to microstructure (grain and phase) refinement and texture weakening. It was demonstrated that the annular channel angular extrusion process can be considered as a novel and effective single-pass severe plastic deformation method.

There is a new long-period stacking ordered structure in Mg–RE–Zn magnesium alloys, namely the LPSO phase, which can effectively improve the yield strength, elongation, and corrosion resistance of Mg alloys. According to different types of Mg–RE–Zn alloy systems, two transformation modes are involved in the heat treatment transformation process. The first is the alloy without LPSO phase in the as-cast alloy, and the Mg_xRE phase changes to 14H-LPSO phase. The second is the alloy containing LPSO phase in the as-cast state, and the 14H-LPSO phase is obtained by the transformations of 6H, 18R, and 24R. The effects of different solution parameters on the second phase of Mg–9Gd–2Y–2Zn–0.5Zr alloy were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The precipitation mechanism of 14H-LPSO phase during solution treatment was further clarified. At a solution time of 13 h, the grain size increased rapidly initially and then decreased slightly with increasing solution temperature. The analysis of the volume fraction of the second phase and lattice constant showed that Gd and Y elements in the alloy precipitated from the matrix and formed 14H-LPSO phase after solution treatment at 490 °C for 13 h. At this time, the hardness of the alloy reached the maximum of 74.6 HV. After solution treatment at 500 °C for 13 h, the solid solution degree of the alloy increases, and the grain size and hardness of the alloy remain basically unchanged.

Ultra-thin-walled tubes of magnesium alloys have received more and more attention in producing precision components for medical devices. Therefore, thin-walled tubes with high quality are desperately needed. In this study, the process of multi-pass variable wall thickness extrusion was carried out on an AZ80 + 0.4%Ce Mg alloy with up to five passes—one-pass backward extrusion and four-pass extension—to fabricate the seamless thin-walled tube with an inside diameter of 6.0 mm and a wall thickness of 0.6 mm. The average grain size decreased from 46.3 μm to 8.9 μm at the appropriate deformation temperature of 350 °C with the punch speed of 0.1 mm/s. X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the Vickers hardness (HV) tester were utilized to study the phases, microstructure, and hardness evolution. It can be observed that low deformation temperatures (240 °C and 270 °C) and low strain (1 pass extrusion and 1 pass extension) lead to twins that occupy the grains to coordinate deformation, and a slip system was activated with the accumulation of strain. The results of the Vickers hardness test showed that twinning, precipitation of second phases, twinning dynamic recrystallization (TDRX), and work hardening were combined to change the hardness of tubes at 240 °C and 270 °C. The hardness reached 93 HV after the third pass extension without annealing at 350 °C.