The Penetration Capacity of a 20 x 102 mm Frangible Armor Piercing Projectile

Authors

  • Mihaela Badea National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
  • Dragos Gabriel Zisopol Department of Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum and Gas University of Ploiești, Ploiești, Romania
  • Anton Hadar National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
  • Vasile Nastasescu
Volume: 15 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 22996-23001 | June 2025 | https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.10708

Received: 24 February 2025 | Revised: 31 March 2025 | Accepted: 4 April 2025 | Online: 14 April 2025


Corresponding author: Dragos Gabriel Zisopol

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the penetration capacity of armor plates by the 20x102 Frangible Armor Piercing (FAP) projectile. The projectile was numerically modeled using four different variants, each designed to simplify the calculations and avoid the spread of classified information. These variants included the external geometric shape, external dimensions, mass, and impact speed. Deploying the novelty concept of the equivalent bullet (one that preserves the parameters that determine the depth of penetration), this research utilized four different bullet designs. These models were quantitatively evaluated and validated by comparing the numerically predicted penetration performance with the experimental testing results. The results led to errors just below 1%, except Model-4 which exceeded 30%. This work is useful not only to researchers in the field of terminal ballistics, but also in a general filed of researchers engaged in Finite Element Method (FEM).

Keywords:

bullet, armor plate, impact, finite element method, material model

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

R. McCoy, Modern exterior ballistics: The launch and flight dynamics of symmetric projectiles, 2nd ed. Schiffer Military History, 2012.

Z. Rosenberg and E. Dekel, Terminal Ballistics. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2012.

G. Ben-Dor, A. Dubinsky, and T. Elperin, "Method of basic impactors for simplified modeling of penetration," Engineering Fracture Mechanics, vol. 76, no. 4, pp. 614–618, Mar. 2009.

M. McTee, C. N. Parish, C. Jourdonnais, and P. Ramsey, "Weight retention and expansion of popular lead-based and lead-free hunting bullets," Science of The Total Environment, vol. 904, Dec. 2023, Art. no. 166288.

A. Mukhtar and H. Nasir, "Comparative closed vessel firing-ballistic parameters evaluation for development of base bleed composite solid propellant," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 3545–3549, 2018.

A. Morka, B. Jackowska, and T. Niezgoda, "Numerical study of the shape effect in the ceramic based ballistic panels," Journal of KONES, vol. Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 539–548, 2009.

R. Laible, Ballistic Materials and Penetration Mechanics. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, 2012.

O.-E. Vlas, "20 mm Frangible Armour Piercing Projectile." Military Technical Academy.

LS-DYNA, Keyword User’s Manual Volume I, Livermore Softwate Technology Corporation (LSTC), Livermore, CA, USA, Aug, 2012.

V. Năstăsescu, "Impact Estimation Between Armour and Kinetic Projectiles," Proceedings of the Romanian Academy, no. 3, 2000.

B. P. Kneubuehl, Ballistics: Theory and Practice. Berlin, Germany: Springer Nature, 2024.

O. Lynch, The Sicence of Ballistics. New York, NY, USA: Clanrye International, 2018.

"30mm Armor-Piercing Ammunition," Defence Update.

P. P. Massaro, Big Book of Ballistics. Iola, WI, USA: Gun Digest, 2017.

G. Klimi, Exterior Ballistics: The Remarkable Methods, 1st ed. Bloomington, IN, USA: Xlibris, 2014.

K.-J. Bathe, Finite Element Procedures, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ, U.S.A.: Prentice Hall, 1996.

O. C. Zienkiewicz, R. L. Taylor, and J. Z. Zhu, The Finite Element Method: Its Basis and Fundamentals, 6th ed. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, 2005.

LS-DYNA Theory Manual, Livermore Softwate Technology Corporation (LSTC), Livermore, CA, USA, Mar. 2006.

G. I. Balan, D. G. Zisopol, A. Stefan, V. Nastasescu, and L. Grigore, "Study of the Injection of Secondary Air into the Intake Manifold of the Gas Turbine to Avoid the Compressor Surging Phenomenon," Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 13248–13254, Apr. 2024.

T. Børvik, M. Langseth, O. S. Hopperstad, and K. A. Malo, "Ballistic penetration of steel plates," International Journal of Impact Engineering, vol. 22, no. 9, pp. 855–886, Oct. 1999.

R. G. O’Donnell, "An investigation of the fragmentation behaviour of impacted ceramics," Journal of Materials Science Letters, vol. 10, no. 12, pp. 685–688, Jan. 1991.

V. Nastasescu and M. Bunea, "Some Material Models Used in Finite Element Analysis of the Impact Problems," 5th International Armament Conference, Warsaw, Poland, 06-08 October, 2004, , pp. 721-729.

V. Narayanamurthy, C. L. Rao, and B. N. Rao, "Numerical simulation of ballistic impact on armour plate with a simple plasticity model," Defence Science Journal, vol. 64, no. 1, Art. no. 55, Jan. 2014.

E. A. Flores-Johnson, M. Saleh, and L. Edwards, "Ballistic performance of multi-layered metallic plates impacted by a 7.62-mm APM2 projectile," International Journal of Impact Engineering, vol. 38, no. 12, pp. 1022–1032, Dec. 2011.

A. Malciu, C. Pupăză, C.-C. Puică, and I.-F. Pană, "Finite element model validation for a 14.5 mm armor piercing bullet impact on a multi-layered add-on armor plate," MATEC Web of Conferences, vol. 373, 2022, Art. no. 00038.

N. Kılıç, S. Bedir, A. Erdik, B. Ekici, A. Taşdemirci, and M. Güden, "Ballistic behavior of high hardness perforated armor plates against 7.62 mm armor piercing projectile," Materials & Design, vol. 63, pp. 427–438, Nov. 2014.

Downloads

How to Cite

[1]
Badea, M., Zisopol, D.G., Hadar, A. and Nastasescu, V. 2025. The Penetration Capacity of a 20 x 102 mm Frangible Armor Piercing Projectile. Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research. 15, 3 (Jun. 2025), 22996–23001. DOI:https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.10708.

Metrics

Abstract Views: 50
PDF Downloads: 42

Metrics Information

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Mihaela Badea, Dragos Gabriel Zisopol, Anton Hadar, Vasile Năstăsescu

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after its publication in ETASR with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.