Kinetic Energy Required for Perforating Double Reinforced Concrete Targets: A Parametric Numerical Study Considering Impact Velocity and Penetrator Presented Area

The U. S. Army's interest in breaching double-reinforced concrete (DRC) walls has revealed a need to better understand the energy required to perforate DRC. In an effort to determine the minimum kinetic energy required for perforating a DRC target, a parametric numerical study was conducted at the U. S. Army Research Laboratory. As an initial step in the exploration of minimum kinetic energy required for perforating DRC targets, large scale, high-fidelity, three-dimensional numerical simulations were conducted using an Eulerian shock physics code and an empirical concrete constitutive model. The parametric study investigated right cylindrical steel rods with masses of 500-2000 g and length-to-diameter ratios (L/D) of 1-10 impacting with velocities ranging from 500-2000 m/s, and perforating rebar reinforced concrete targets at three different impact locations with impact orientations to target of either end-on or side-on. This paper describes the modeling methodology used to generate the data, and then uses this data to consider the kinetic energy of perforation of DRC for the described range of conditions. Finally, an empirical fit to the data is reported, which may be used to estimate the conditions necessary for perforation of a DRC target of given parameters.