Penetration of Projectile into Terrestrial Target

A model is developed for describing the phenomena of vertical penetration of a projectile into terrestrial targets. The penetration depth, the dynamic pressure exerted on the penetrator as well as the disturbed material zone predicted by this model compare favorably with the field observation. An exact analysis of the penetration problem with the theory of plasticity would be extremely difficult since the deformation of the target material is large; and the inertia effort of both the soil and the penetrator must be taken into consideration. Furthermore, since the deformation is large and localized, numerical analysis of this problem with a finite difference code (2D) or a finite element code requires repeated rezoning; it is an expensive computational process.