THE INFLUENCE OF INITIAL NOSE SHAPE IN ERODING PENETRATION

The effect of projectile nose shape on penetration is examined numeric ally using the nonlinear, large deformation wavecode CTH. In particula r, the impact of a tungsten alloy, long rod projectile into a 4340 ste el target is investigated for three different nose shapes: blunt, hemi spherical, and conical. The pressures are sufficiently high that erosi on of the projectile begins immediately upon impact. The decays of the shocks are examined, as are the resulting material flow fields. Later -time effects are also explored, such as how the nose shape affects pe netration, and how long each case takes to arrive at a quasi-steady-st ate flow configuration in which the tungsten-steel interface is comple tely determined by eroding plastic flow.