Simulation of Fragmentation Characteristics of Projectile Jacket Made of Tungsten Alloy after Penetrating Metal Target Plate using SPH Method

A smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) model was used to simulate the fragmentation process of the jacket during penetrator with lateral efficiency (PELE) penetrating the metal target plate to study the fragmentation characteristics of PELE jacket made of tungsten alloy. The validity of the SPH model was verified by experimental results. Then the SPH model was used to simulate the jacket fragmentation under different impact velocity and thickness of target plate. The influence of impact velocity and thickness of target plate on the jacket fragmentation was obtained by analysing the mass distribution and quantity distribution of the fragments formed by the jacket. The results show that the dynamic fragmentation of tungsten alloy can be simulated effectively using the SPH model, Johnson-Cook strength model, maximum tensile stress failure criterion and stochastic failure model. When the thickness of target plate is fixed, the greater the impact velocity, the greater the pressure produced by the projectile impacting the target plate; with the increase of impact velocity, the mass of residual projectile decreases, the number of fragments formed by fragmentation of jacket increases linearly, and the average mass of fragments decreases exponentially. When the impact velocity is constant, the greater the thickness of the target plate, the longer the pressure duration by the projectile impacting the target plate; with the increase of the thickness of target plate, the mass of residual projectile decreases, the number of fragments formed by fragmentation of jacket increases linearly, and the average mass of fragments decreases exponentially. The numerical calculation model and research method adopted in this paper can be used to study the impact fragmentation of solid materials effectively.