Experimental determination of the ballistic limit in Weldox 460 E steel plates

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the ballistic penetration in Weldox 460 E steel plates. A compressed gas gun is used to launch the sabot mounted blunt-ended projectile, and the initial striker velocity is varied between 120 and 320 m/s. The nominal hardness, diameter, length and mass of the projectile are held constant for all tests. The circular target is clamped in a frame, and the primary variable is the plate thickness. Measurements are made of the initial and final velocities, and the ballistic limit curve is constructed. In addition, a digital high-speed camera is used to photograph the penetration event and to obtain velocity-time curves and the projectile's path during penetration. Material data is presented together with some metallurgical observations. A lot of effort has been invested in order to carry out precision tests, since the experimental findings will be used to validate analytical and numerical models.