Analysis on Deflection of Projectile Penetrating into Composite Concrete Targets

From an offensive point of view, increasing the impact velocity of the projectile is an effective way to enlarge its penetration depth. However, as the projectile penetrates the target, there often exists an angle of attack, the resultant force on the projectile is in a different direction from that of projectile velocity, which causes the deflection of the projectile, and thus the strike effect is greatly weakened. From the other perspective, the deflection of the projectile can contribute to proactive protection of key targets from damage caused by a deeper penetration which has been an important consideration for actual protective structure. Presently, investigations on the deflection mechanism of the impact projectile are relatively few, and there is especially a lack of more comprehensive theoretical and experimental studies. In this paper, the mechanism of projectile deflection when penetrating a composite concrete target is thoroughly analyzed. The composite concrete target composed of a concrete fixed target and multiple diamond-shaped moving targets, similar to the structural system for multi-layer overlay extension, showed better anti-penetration performance in practical protective structures. The analytical model of projectile deflection during penetrating the target is established through simultaneously resolving the dynamic equations for the projectile and moving target. Penetration tests of the composite concrete target plate impacted by a 76 mm projectile were conducted to examine the effectiveness of the analytical model, where impact velocity and point and the size of the moving target were considered. On this basis, the influences of impact velocity and point on the deflection of the projectile are disclosed, and the effects of parameters of moving target are discussed. These findings can provide significant references for optimization of advanced protective structures and improvement of their anti-penetration performance.