Reverse Ballistic Impact Studies of Thin Plate Perforation

Full-scale ballistic experiments using tungsten rods and rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) steel plates are expensive to perform. For this reason, a study has been performed into the possibility of using less expensive, more easily available metals in small-scale laboratory experiments. The metal pairs chosen listed in order as armour/penetrator materials were: RHA steel/tungsten, dural/mild steel, and copper/aluminium. In order to be able to use as many diagnostics as possible (including high speed photography, VISAR, stress gauges) the reverse ballistic configuration was used. This configuration also allowed the determination of the high rate, low strain mechanical properties of mild steel to be determined. Finally, a comparison was made between experiment and numerical predictions made using a mod- ified Armstrong-Zerilli constitutive model for the RHA steel/tungsten pair. The model was found to underpredict the penetration, probably because failure mechanisms were not incor- porated.