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Terminal Ballistics pp 109–153Cite as

Plate Perforation

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Abstract

The process of plate perforation is the most important issue in terminal ballistics for armor engineers who seek to optimize the weight and cost of their protective designs. This subject has been the focus of a large number of studies which concentrate on two issues (1) the ballistic limit velocity for a given projectile/plate combination and (2) the projectile’s residual velocity and mass, as a function of its impact velocity. The perforation process is influenced by the back surface of the target which, together with the impact face, results in a time-varying force on the projectile during perforation. Different modes of perforation are possible and their energy absorption capabilities have to be carefully analyzed, especially when the process involves more than a single mode. For example, when thin plates are perforated they tend to stretch and bend around the impact area, absorbing a significant part of the projectile’s kinetic energy through these deformations. On the other hand, several failure modes can take place during perforation of thick plates such as spalling, petalling, discing, and plugging. These failure modes depend on several factors such as the impact velocity, the properties of the plate material, and the loading geometry (plate thickness, projectile diameter and its nose shape). These issues have been discussed by Wilkins (1978), Woodward (1990), Corbett et al. (1996), and Liu and Stronge (2000) and others. These inherent complexities call for different analytical approaches to the process of perforation, as compared with the deep penetration of rigid penetrators which were discussed in Chap. 3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ballistics Center, RAFAEL, Haifa, Israel

    Zvi Rosenberg & Erez Dekel

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  1. Zvi Rosenberg
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  2. Erez Dekel
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Correspondence to Zvi Rosenberg .

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Rosenberg, Z., Dekel, E. (2012). Plate Perforation. In: Terminal Ballistics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25305-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25305-8_4

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