Further examination of long rod penetration: the role of penetrator strength at hypervelocity impacts

2D numerical simulations were performed in order to further investigate the role of penetrator strength in the interaction of long rods and semi-infin ite targets. These simulations are used to highlight the reasons for severa l discrepancies between existing data and the well-known 1D model for penet ration. In particular, the nature of the secondary penetration of high-dens ity rods, the hydrodynamic limits of high-strength rods, and the predicted maxima in their penetration curves are discussed. The causes for these disc repancies are established by additional numerical simulations which explore the validity of the penetrator strength parameter in the analytical model as a physical entity. It is shown that this is, indeed, the weakest part of the model since it is strongly dependent on both the impact velocity of th e rod and its length-to-diameter ratio, (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.