Penetration of Multiple, Axially Offset, Disk-shaped Penetrators

Abstract

The terminal ballistic performance of high-velocity, low length-to-diameter (L/D) ratio projectiles impacting steel targets has been a topic of considerable interest in penetration mechanics to evaluate the efficacy of segmented projectiles.A computational study has been conducted to examine the penetration performance of multiple (i.e., three), axially offset, disk-shaped projectiles impacting semi-infinite rolled homogeneous armor (RHA). A constant 3.25 projectile diameter separation distance between each disk-shaped projectile was maintained for the impact conditions modeled in this study. The three-dimensional (3-D) simulations suggest that the total depth of penetration into steel is not degraded for disk offsets less than 0.5 projectile diameters based on the range of disk offsets modeled in the study.n