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Published September 2001 | public
Journal Article

A computational study of the influence of thermal softening on ballistic penetration in metals

Abstract

A two-dimensional axisymmetric computational study of the penetration of a tungsten heavy alloy (WHA) rod into a 6061-T6 aluminum target has been performed using a Lagrangian formulation. Adaptive remeshing has been used to alleviate the problem of excessive distortion of elements which occurs during large deformation studies (such as ballistic penetration). Strain hardening, strain-rate hardening and thermal softening in both the penetrator and target materials are taken into full consideration. The computed depth of penetration (DOP), residual penetrator length and maximum crater diameter match very well the experimental results reported by Yadav and Ravichandran (Int. J. Impact Eng., Submitted for publication) for an impact velocity of 1100 m/s. Computer simulations reveal that in the absence of failure mechanisms (such as shear banding), introduction of thermal softening in the penetrator material decreases its depth of penetration in a metal target, when compared to a penetrator material which does not soften thermally. These results are in contrast to the recent work of Rosenberg and Dekel (Int. J. Impact Eng. 21 (1998) 283–296) and a plausible explanation for this discrepancy is presented.

Additional Information

© 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. Received 21 May 1999; received in revised form 16 February 2001. This research was supported by the Dow Chemical Company which is gratefully acknowledged. MO is grateful for support from the Army Research Office under grant number DAAH04-96-1-0056.

Additional details

Created:
August 23, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023