THE EFFECT OF TRICONIC NOSE PROFILES ON KINETIC ENERGY PENETRATION INTO CONCRETE TARGETS

The efficiency of kinetic energy penetrators into concrete structures and targets is becoming an ever increasing area of interest as weapons are required to penetrate deeper into targets for similar impact conditions and masses. Nose shape and profile are two of the areas that can be changed to increase performance without affecting mass. Many papers have been published regarding nose shape but most have focused on ogival profiles. This paper looks at a triconic nose shape and the effect of the location of the conic intersections of the profile on penetration performance. This paper describes the penetration performance of projectiles with a normal impact velocity of 300m.s(-1) using empirical formulae, analytical modelling and ballistic gas-gun experiments performed at the University of Cambridge.