As high-density tungsten alloy products, tungsten beads have attracted significant attention in military and engineering fields due to their outstanding kinetic energy advantages. This advantage stems from tungsten's high density (approximately 17–19 g/cm3, more than 2.5 times that of steel), high hardness, and excellent mechanical stability.
Kinetic energy (E=1/2mv2) is crucial in determining penetration and damage capabilities. For the same volume, tungsten beads have a much higher mass than materials like steel and aluminum, thus carrying significantly more kinetic energy at the same velocity. This makes tungsten beads perform exceptionally well in fragmentation warheads: after the explosion of an anti-aircraft or anti-missile missile, a swarm of tungsten beads disperses at a high initial velocity, and individual fragments, thanks to their high density, maintain good velocity retention (slow velocity decay), thereby transferring more kinetic energy to the target. Studies show that, under the same shape and initial velocity, tungsten alloy fragments penetrate armor more deeply and lose less kinetic energy than steel fragments.
Compared to depleted uranium (DU) materials, tungsten beads offer the greatest advantage in terms of environmental friendliness and the absence of radioactive pollution. While depleted uranium penetrators exhibit higher penetration efficiency at low to medium speeds due to their self-sharpening effect (adiabatic shear failure), they generate toxic radioactive aerosols upon impact, raising environmental and health controversies with long-term use. Tungsten alloys, however, do not have this problem and are considered an ideal alternative to depleted uranium. Especially in the context of increasingly stringent environmental and international legal requirements, the environmental characteristics of tungsten beads possess even greater strategic value.
In armor-piercing applications, the kinetic energy advantage of tungsten bead cores is also reflected in their resistance to high-temperature deformation due to their high melting point (tungsten has a high melting point of 3422℃). During high-speed flight and penetration, the projectile's frontal temperature can reach thousands of degrees Celsius. Tungsten alloys are less prone to melting or severe deformation (the self-passivation effect is weaker than that of depleted uranium but can be mitigated through material optimization), maintaining good structural integrity and efficiently converting kinetic energy into penetration power.
Furthermore, the terminal trajectory performance of tungsten beads under detonation also demonstrates an advantage in kinetic energy retention. While detonation causes slight mass loss and minor deformation, tungsten beads retain strong armor-piercing capabilities even after long-distance flight, making them suitable as the core destructive element in fragmentation or high-explosive warheads.
Of course, the kinetic energy advantage of tungsten beads comes with trade-offs: compared to depleted uranium, their self-sharpening ability against certain composite armors at the same kinetic energy is slightly inferior, requiring higher initial velocities or new composites (such as tungsten fibers/amorphous alloys) to compensate. However, considering their density, stability, lack of pollution, high-temperature performance, and supply chain security (China dominates global tungsten resources), tungsten beads have become an indispensable material for modern kinetic energy weapons.
