Experimental investigation of impact of long rod eroding projectiles against rolled homogeneous armour

Long rod eroding penetrators exhibit hydrodynamic behaviour upon impact against the target plates. An experimental study was carried out to investigate the factors affecting the penetration of tungsten alloy rods against rolled homogenous armour at ordnance velocities. Experiments were carried out for range of projectile length to diameter ratios to determine the penetration efficiency of the projectile, where the projectile penetration efficiency is the penetration depth per unit projectile length. Analytical Alekseevski–Tate model was implemented to predict the penetration depth across the length to diameter range and the results were compared with the experimental data. The tungsten percentage of the projectile material was also varied to change its mechanical properties and thus observe the effect of the same on the penetration depth. The experimental results showed a linear relationship between the penetration efficiency and the length to diameter ratio across the considered range of length to diameter ratios. The Alekseevski–Tate model predictions were not consistent across as the model does not consider the effect of length to diameter ratio. The projectiles with high impact energy were able to perforate the target plate.