Experimental and theoretical study on cavitation of concrete targets penetrated by hypervelocity long rod projectiles

Abstract

The cavitation phenomenon can seriously decrease the strike performance of military weapons. As military terminal-ballistic activities have turned to hypervelocity attacks, the cavitation effect existing in the hypervelocity penetration deserves more attention. In terms of long-rod hypervelocity penetration into concretes, this study presents an analytical cavity model for the prediction of the cavity diameter based on the two-stage cavitation mechanism and the u-v relationship. The two-stage mechanism involving mushrooming and radial momentum expansion is used to describe the cavitation modes and the penetration parameters for the projectiles used in the analytical model are determined by numerical simulations empirically. Besides, the three modes including rigidity, deformation and erosion are introduced into the cavity model to elucidate the projectile state. Moreover, the hypervelocity impact experiments on the long rods into semi-infinite concrete targets at velocities of 2117 ∼ 3086 m/s are carried out to observe the cavitation effect of concrete targets and for further validating the model through comparing with the experimental cavity profiles, where the cavity profile is quantified with silica gel, and the cavity diameter is found to be more than five times the projectile diameter. The cavitation effect is observed significantly and quantified from the experiment results. The cavity model is compared with the experimental cavity profiles, showing that the model has good applicability.