YAWED LONG-ROD ARMOR PENETRATION

The terminal ballistic behavior of ductile tungsten alloy long-rod penetrators is examined as impact yaw is increased from values of approximately zero to those which cause penetration performance to significantly decrease. The impact signatures remaining in the target crater from high yaw impacts are examined and used to identify thc physical mechanisms which cause penetrator performance to degrade. A threshold limit of penetrator yaw beyond which penetration performance decreases is derived. An empirically based model which quantifies the decrease in penetration due to yaw once this threshold limit is exceeded is presented for impacts with normal incidence semi-infinite RHA targets. The results from a computational effort using the HULL code to simulate high yaw impacts are presented and compared with the empirical penetration degradation model.