Simulation study on effects of cap on armorpiercing performance of nose-cone-head projectile penetrating multi-interval-layer steel target

In order to analyze the effects of cap on the armor-piercing behavior of nose-cone-head projectile (NCHP) and its protective effect on the head of NCHP in the process of penetrating targets, a numerical simulation method was applied to analyze the processes of capped and uncapped NCHP penetrating the steel targets of 4-interval layers with thickness of 10 mm, 20 mm, 10 mm, and 6 mm, respectively, at different impacting speeds from 500 m/s to 800 m/s and target angles of 0° and 30°. The results showed that when penetrating at angle of 0°, the maximum axial overload of the capped projectile was obviously smaller than that of the uncapped one and the attenuation effect of the cap on the maximum axial overload became more obvious with the impacting speed increasing, reaching maximum attenuation of 44.56% at 800 m/s. When penetrating at angle of 30° and impacting speeds from 600 m/s to 800 m/s, the maximum axial overload of the capped projectile was significantly smaller than that of the uncapped projectile, and the attenuation efficiency of the cap on the maximum axial overload increased constantly with the impacting speed increasing. When penetrating at angle of 0°, the effect of the cap on the armor-piercing attitude of the projectile was small. When penetrating at angle of 30°, the capped projectile could keep its better armor-piercing attitude. Especially, at a lower impacting speed, the armor-piercing attitude of the capped projectile was significantly better that that of the uncapped one. Moreover, regardless of the penetrating angle, the mass abrasion of the capped projectile head was smaller than that of the uncapped one, indicating that the cap structure had an evident protective effect on the projectile head.