YAWING IMPACT ON THIN PLATES BY BLUNT PROJECTILES

Two experimental investigations and a corresponding analytical study w ere conducted to examine the phenomena attendant to the impact of blun t-nosed, hard-steel strikers on stationary thin plates of aluminum and steel at moderate angles of yaw and zero obliquity. The variation of ballistic limit with yaw angle or the terminal velocity and final traj ectory angle in perforation tests were ascertained. Post-mortem examin ation of the plates indicated that damage and failure occurred by bulg ing, lateral indentation, and side and front petaling. A theoretical m odel based on a membrane representation was developed that analyzed th e impact by dividing the process into five stages. This model underpre dicted the ballistic limit by up to 14%, with better correlation found at higher yaw angles. Excellent agreement was observed between the ex perimental and analytical final velocities when the data points were c orrected to reflect the difference between the experimental values of the ballistic limit and that predicted by the model. Fair agreement wa s found between the experimental and the analytical values of the traj ectory angle.