Why don’t rifle bullets detonate explosive reactive armor?

Question

Why don’t rifle bullets detonate explosive reactive armor?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Very simple: not enough energy.

There’s a certain amount of energy that has to be applied to modern explosives to detonate them. They’re designed that way to make them safer to be around. We want them to explode, but only when they encounter the exact conditions we’re after.

Chemical engineers have spent a lot of energy finding ways to make explosives safe, that includes making sure a bullet won’t detonate them.

A 5.56 bullet might have a muzzle energy of 1500-2000 joules. An explosive might require 10,000 joules or more to go off.