Scharnhorst vs a KGV

[alecsandros]

... However in a real duel, and not in a chase, the rate of fire becomes very important.
Bismarck's broadside weight was smaller than KGV's broadside weight. But when factoring in the rate of fire, thigs change dramaticaly.

[Iranon]

The British at least thought damage potential was simply a matter of having a powerful bursting charge, and that the metal didn't matter much. Did anyone else research this in detail, and come to different conclusions?
Also, do we have anything about how this expected damage would scale, with respect to either force or weight? An important distinction - iirc detonation of twice as much explosives would increase the force by about a third.

I see little reason to look at broadside or individual shell weights when we have better guesses/computations available for both damage and ability to penetrate.

What I find interesting about this match-up is that it seems both sides would try their hardest to come off worse, if I understand the tactical capabilities correctly.
The British would attempt to close the range, forcing a decisive battle being more important to them than playing to the relative strengths of their design.
The Germans on the other hand would prefer to break off the action, rather than playing to the relative strenghts of their design.
Both make sense as the British can afford losing a ship better than the Germans, they are more likely to have reinforcements on hand, and they have a better chance of catching a damaged survivor on the limp home.

[tommy303]

The discussion of weight of explosive filler is an interesting one. The weight of explosive chosen for a given shell is something of a compromise. The preferred British filler was Shellite, a blend of trinitrophenol and dinitrophenol. Trinitrophenol, or lyddite, was much too sensitive for AP work, but the addition of a percentage, often around 40% dinitrophenol improved the explosive's resistance to concussive detonation when the shell impacted heavy armour. On the debit side, it tended to reduce the overall power of the filler. As a consequence, the British increased the size of the filler to compensate, accepting a slight loss in penetrative ability since the larger cavity necessary for the larger weight of filler tended to weaken the shell body proportionately. All other things being equal, in two shells of similar size and design, the one with the smaller explosive cavity will acheive, usually, greater penetration. The Germans, for instance, preferred a smaller amount of explosive to insure optimal penetration.