Critical ricochet angle of cylindrical tungsten fragment impacting aluminum target

Abstract

In the present study, we performed theoretical calculation, numerical simulation and experimental test to investigate the ricochet performance of cylindrical fragments. The fragment, 5.7 mm in diameter and 6.7 mm in length, impacted aluminum plates 2-10 mm in thickness at speeds of 800-1 200 m/s. A theoretical model of the ricochet was established, the relation between the critical angle and the initial velocity and the thickness of the target plate were obtained. The results of theoretical calculation agreed well with both the simulation and experiment. The results show that the higher the impacting velocity, the larger the critical ricochet angle; and the thicker the target, the smaller the critical ricochet angle. When a fragment impacts a 2 mm target plate at 800-1 200 m/s, the critical ricochet angle is 81°-81.25°; when a fragment impacts a 4 mm target plate at 800-1 200 m/s, the critical ricochet angle is72.5°-76.25°.