Does V50 Depend on Armor Mass?

Abstract

This experiment considers whether V50 depends on the mass of an armor sample when the material and thickness are constant. V50 is the velocity at which 50% of the shots are stopped by the armor. It was hypothesized that V50 values determined using lighter armor samples may be overly optimistic because lighter armor samples have more rearward motion during impact thus requiring more velocity for penetration. V50 was determined for 75mm x 75mm and 150mm x 150mm square samples of A36 sheet steel with a thickness of 6.35 mm for 3 bullets, the M80, the M193, and the M855. The armor samples were placed in contact with 10% ballistic gelatin prepared per the FBI protocol. For all three bullets, the V50 was higher for the lighter armor samples (75 mm square) compared with the heavier samples (150 mm square), indicating that lighter samples are harder to penetrate.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 30, 2012
Accession Number
ADA562223

Entities

People

  • Christine Haight
  • Kadie Mcnamara
  • Michael Courtney

Organizations

  • United States Air Force Academy

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Armor
  • Armor Plate
  • Chronometers
  • Department Of Defense
  • Diameters
  • Experimental Design
  • Geometry
  • Information Operations
  • Materials
  • Mathematics
  • Muzzle Velocity
  • Physical Properties
  • Regression Analysis
  • Uncertainty
  • United States Air Force Academy

Readers

  • Regression Analysis.
  • ballistics.