Numerical prediction of projectile residual velocity after penetration of reinforced concrete with different reinforcing bar arrangements

Abstract

Projectile penetration of reinforced concrete structures has enormous significance because in plain concrete only the compressive strength offers resistance to penetration and projectile residual velocity. It is of great interest to observe how the amount of reinforcement can greatly influence the penetration process and projectile residual velocity. In this paper, numerical simulations on projectile penetration of medium strength reinforced concrete were performed using commercial hydrocode AUTODYN‐3D. A combined Lagrange, meshless and beam solver method was used for this kind of problem. For validation of our numerical scheme, simulation results were first compared with residual velocity and damage given by Hanchak et al. Based on this numerical scheme, the influence of reinforcement on projectile residual velocity was investigated. The analysis shows that the residual velocity of projectile decreases with the increase in reinforcement and, on the other hand, ballistic limit increases. Finally, the oblique impact was also studied to find the ricochet angle for different impact velocities.