An investigation on mass loss of ogival projectiles penetrating concrete targets

Mass loss of an ogival projectile during its normal penetration in concrete target was investigated in this paper. Experiments of 38CrSi short-rod projectiles with ogival nose shape penetrating into concrete targets were conducted in the striking velocity range of 500–1500 m/s. Discussions revealed that projectile mass loss derives mainly from the nose part for both short-rod and long-rod projectiles during the penetration process. Furthermore, an engineering model was proposed to determine upper limit of rigid penetration regime as the maximum value of the striking velocity, which was based on the feature of projectile mass loss in the hydrodynamic transition between rigid penetration regime and semi-hydrodynamic penetration regime. Good agreements are obtained between engineering predictions and experimental results.