Analysis on the bending of a projectile induced by asymmetrical mass abrasion

Asymmetrical nose abrasion is one of the dominant reasons to cause a projectile bending, yawing and break when it strikes concrete target normally at high velocity. The spherical cavity-expansion model is employed to evaluate the transverse load in case of asymmetrical mass abrasion. With considering the axial drag force that can reflect continuous varying of nose shape, a method is proposed to analyze the yielding of a normal penetrating projectile under the combination of compression and bending. It indicates that the critical yielding cross-section of a projectile is distinctly sensitive to the transverse load induced by asymmetrical mass abrasion when it suffering large axial drag force. The influence of cartridge thickness of a projectile, concrete strength and the initial impact velocity as well as the discrepancy of asymmetrical mass abrasion on the yielding function is discussed.