Efficient Method to Evaluate Critical Ricochet Angle of Projectile Penetrating into a Concrete Target

Abstract

In this study, we propose an efficient computation method to estimate the critical ricochet angle (CRA) for oblique penetration into concrete targets which is based on the spherical cavity-expansion theory. During penetrating event, the resistance force on the projectile nose is approximated by semi-empirical function from the spherical cavity-expansion theory and projectile motion of oblique penetration is predicted to verify the proposed numerical method with the aid of finite differential approach. In order to enhance the accuracy of projectile motion, the empirical constants of the semi-empirical function are obtained with respect to the oblique angle by conducting finite element analyses of the oblique penetration. CRA is then obtained by predicting the projectile motion at the various oblique angles and verified with results of finite element analysis. Our work presents that the reliable CRA can be estimated efficiently by employing a series of the numerical simulations. We believe that our proposed numerical method will provide a useful analysis platform for designing penetrator warhead which hits the target at an oblique impact angles.