Influence of target strength on the penetration depth of shaped charge jets into RHA targets

The effect of the target strength on the shaped charge jet penetration into Rolled Homogeneous Armors (RHA) target has been studied experimentally and numerically. It is found that the yield strength of the target can largely reduce the penetration depth of shaped charge jets. Allison and Vitali [4] formula for the prediction of jet penetration depth is modified by introducing a target resistance reduction term based on Wright and Frank analysis method [20] and Rosenberg and Dekel [19] target penetration resistance term. Furthermore, the material constant “B” in the target resistance function was optimized and found to be 0.73. A fairly good agreement with numerical and experimental results of penetration depth has been demonstrated. Results show that the increase of target yield strength leads to large decrease of the shaped charge jet penetration depth into RHA targets. The proposed target strength reduction equation is validated using both small and large caliber shaped charges against RHA targets with different strength values.