The influence of spin on fragmentation modeling of AP projectiles interacting with oblique armor

Oblique interactions of AP projectiles with steel plates are of great interest because of their potential in light-weight armor applications. Recently the authors presented the strength and failure model of the 14.5 mm AP core capable to simulate the fragmentation observed on Xray shadowgraphs. This article presents an investigation of the earlier omitted effect of projectile's spin on the quality of the fragmentation and dispersal of the debris in the simulation. A series of simulations were run to compare results for half-model, full models with spin and without spin and experimental shadowgraphs. The comparison reveals that the fragmentation level obtained with the full 3D model with spin is in slightly better agreement with X-ray images than are the older half-space model results. The effect of spin on the radial expansion of the core fragments appeared to be more prominent and may be important for accurate modeling of real oblique armor problems.