Modeling Experiments of Hypervelocity Penetration of Adobe by Spheres and Rods

The work described in this paper uses the Holmquist-Johnson-Cook equation of state and constitutive model for concrete and appropriate material parameters derived from mechanical test data to perform numerical simulations of penetration and perforation of adobe building material. Experimental results from the literature are modeled, and two-dimensional numerical simulations are carried out using the CTH Eulerian shock physics code. Two groups of simulations were performed in accordance with the experimental results. The first group is tungsten rod penetrators, with impact velocities ranging from 340 to 820 m/s, perforating adobe targets with thicknesses ranging from 71 to 497 mm, and comparison of the residual velocities predicted by the numerical simulations with the available experimental results. The second group is steel spheres, with impact velocities ranging from 500 to 3230 m/s, penetrating into adobe targets of semi-infinite thickness, and comparison of the depths of penetration predicted by the numerical simulations with the available experimental results. The technique described in this paper for modeling and simulation of adobe penetration and perforation is able to adequately predict the residual velocities and depths of penetration for the conditions modeled.