Experimental study on penetration of reinforced concrete by a high-speed penetrator with large mass

A metallic penetrator with the mass of 52 kg was designed by considering reasonably its structure and head shape. Based on the sub-caliber launch technology, the designed penetrator was accelerated to 1 300 m/s by a Davis gun to experimentally penetrate a six-layer reinforced concrete target with the size of 3.0 m3.0 m6.0 m. The penetration experiment displays that the sub-caliber penetrator departed distinctly from the Davis gun，its flight attitude was stable, the attack angle was less than 2, and the residual velocity was about 260 m/s after the penetration of the penetrator into the reinforced concrete of 6 m thickness. After the penetration experiment, the recovered penetrator was intact and only a little plastic deformation on the penetrator head. And the penetrator mass lost around 1.2 percent, its length shortened 0.7 percent, and the erosion phenomenon was unconspicuous.