High-velocity impact of low-density projectiles on structural aluminum armor

The US Army Research Laboratory has been studying the impact physics of low-density projectiles on urban and light-armor structures for use in electro-magnetic cannons. In this paper, results of low-aspect ratio projectiles of nylon, aluminum and steel impacting aluminum armor at velocities above 2000 m/s will be presented. Both computational solid mechanics and analytic modeling techniques were used to supplement experiments to derive a toolkit for assessing target response and character of the debris created from different constant energy impact conditions.