INFLUENCE OF THE PENETRATOR MATERIAL ON THE DEPTH OF PENETRATION OF TUNGSTEN ALLOY APFSDS PROJECTILES IN AA 7020 T651

Experimental and numerical investigations of the penetration of APFSDS projectiles in semi-infinite targets of Mars® 380 and AA 7020 T651 are presented in this work. Two different tungsten heavy alloy penetrator materials with different strengths have been used. In armor steel the material of the penetrator was found to have only a minor influence on the depth of penetration. In the AA 7020 T651 targets the influence of the penetrators strength was found to be important, especially as at lower velocities the penetration process does not lead to an erosion of the projectile. With the numerical simulation the deforming penetration process could be reproduced, but more effort is necessary to evaluate a reliable strength model parameter set.