Fragmentation Behaviour of Radial Layered PELE Impacting Thin Metal Target Plates

The fragmentation mechanism of the penetrator with lateral effect (PELE) after perforating a thin target plate has been summarised and analysed firstly. Then the fragmentation of radial layered PELE was analysed qualitatively and verified by experiment. In the experiment, the target plates were made of 45# steel and 2A12 aluminium respectively. Qualitative analysis and experimental results show that: for normal PELE without layered, after perforating the thin metal target plate, from the bottom to the head of the projectile, the number of fragments formed by the jacket gradually increases, and the mass of the fragment decreases correspondingly. Compared with the normal PELE without layered, the radial layered PELE is less likely to break into fragments, when impacting the thin metal target plate with the same material and thickness under the same impact velocity. However, from the mechanism of the PELE, when the resistance of the target plate is large enough, and the duration of pressure is long enough, the radial layered PELE also can break into fragments with transverse velocity component. The resistance of the target plate plays an important role in the fragmentation of radial layered PELE. The radial layered PELE produced massive fragments with transverse velocity component when impacting the 45# steel plate with5 mm thickness under the impact velocity of 657.2 m/s.