Studying on the penetration depth of penetrator with including the effect of mass abrasion

Mass abrasion is observed on the nose of a projectilewhen it strikes concrete target at high velocity, which significantly affectthe penetration performance. To evaluate the influence of the mass abrasionon the depth of penetration (DOP), an empirical relationship between thenose factor of the residual projectile after abrasion and the initial impactvelocity is constructed according to the published experimental data. Basedon the dynamic cavity expansion theory, considering the varying nose shapeand the instant mass of a projectile, a modified model is proposed tocalculate the DOP of kinetic energy penetrator. The modified modeldemonstrates that an upper limit of DOP exists due to the mass abrasion ofprojectile, which also had been confirmed by different experimental data.