PERFORATION OF STEEL AND POLYCARBONATE PLATES BY TUMBLING PROJECTILES

An experimental investigation to assess the effect of tumbling by hard -steel, blunt-faced cylindrical projectiles on the impact response of thin 4130 steel and polycarbonate target plates was performed. Deforma tion and failure phenomena were observed and discussed; comparisons of the results with analytical models and numerical stimulation, describ ed in a previous paper, were also performed for the steel targets. The final velocity of the projectile and the crater length in the target were correlated with the striker impact angle (or yaw angle with a zer o oblique angle); reasonable agreement was attained among the experime ntal, analytical and numerical results. It was found that an increase of the impact angle can increase the velocity drop and the crater leng th markedly. The increase tends to be stabilized after the impact angl e exceeds 50 degrees and the consequences in such a case are almost th e same as in side-on impact. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.