Experimental study of projectiles with flat, conical and hemispherical nose shapes on low velocity impact on GLARE 3

In this paper, drop weight impact tests using projectiles with different nose shapes on GLARE 3 are examined experimentally. GLARE targets are made of two aluminum sheets and six composite layers by hand lay-up method. The composite layers are constructed using unidirectional E-glass fiber and cy219 resin with adding hy5161 as a hardener. The projectiles are manufactured in flat, hemispherical and conical 90̊ nose shapes and hardened. The projectiles collide to targets with initial impact energies of 40, 55 and 70 Joule. In this study, the effects of nose shape at the maximum impact force, the penetration, the energy absorption, and damage zone are examined. The results show that conical projectile in all three impact energies and hemispherical projectile at 55 and 70 Joule fully penetrate targets. Under impacts of the flat projectile, a shear plug is formed on the upper face of targets and a plastic deformation is created on the bottom face of targets in impact energies of 40 and 55 Joule. For hemispherical projectile at 40 Joule and for flat one at 70 Joule, the tensile stresses in the aluminum sheet located at the bottom face of target result in longitudinal crack. Moreover, results show that the maximum and minimum contact force and energy absorption are occurred in the projectile with flat and conical nose shapes, respectively.