Study of critical ricochet angle for conical nose shape projectiles

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to formulate a generic analytical model to assess the phenomena of water ricochet for a conical nose shaped projectile. A theoretical model is analyzed to study the critical angle of conical nose shaped projectile entering in water and is extended for different mediums as normal sand and mercury. Numerical Simulation has been carried out to find the effect of tip angle of the conical nose shaped projectile on the critical angle. Critical angle is defined as that angle of impact of the projectile above which ricochet will occur. This angle is obtained by balancing the momentums acting on the projectile at the time of impact on the basis of Newtonian theory. Major factors affecting critical angle are impact velocity, impact angle, density of the projectile and the target. An attempt has been made to study the effect of longitudinal spin of the projectile on the critical angle.