Stability analyses of the mass abrasive projectile high-speed penetrating into concrete target. Part I: Engineering model for the mass loss and nose-blunting of ogive-nosed projectiles

The mass loss and nose blunting of a projectile during high-speed deep penetration into concrete target may cause structural destruction and ballistic trajectory instability of the penetrator, obviously reducing the penetration efficiency of penetrator. Provided that the work of friction between projectile and target is totally transformed into the heat to melt penetrator material at its nose surface, an engineering model is established for the mass loss and nose-blunting of the ogive-nosed projectile. A dimensionless formula for the relative mass loss of projectile is obtained by introducing the dimensionless impact function I and geometry function N of the projectile. The critical value V (0) (c) of the initial striking velocity is formulated, and the mass loss of projectile tends to increase weakly nonlinearly with I/N when V (0) < V (0) (c) , whilst the mass loss is proportional to the initial kinetic energy of projectile when V (0) < V (0) (c) . The theoretical prediction of V (0) (c) is further confirmed to be very close to the experimental value of 1.0 km/s based on 11 sets of different penetration tests. Also the validity of the proposed expressions of mass loss and nose-blunting coefficients of a projectile are verified by the tests. Therefore, a theoretical basis is for the empirical conclusions drawn in previous publications. Regarding the completely empirical determinations of the mass loss and nose-blunting coefficients given in previous papers, the present analysis reveals its physical characteristic and also guarantees its prediction accuracy. The engineering model established in the present paper forms the basis for further discussions on the structural stability and the terminal ballistic stability of ogive-nosed projectiles high-speed penetrating into concrete targets, which will respectively be elaborated in Part II and Part III of the present study.