RUPTURE OF THIN METAL TUBES BY NORMAL AND OBLIQUE IMPACT OF BLUNT CONICALNOSED MISSILES: EXPERIMENTS

Impact tests at both normal and oblique angles of incidence were conducted on thin mild tubes using a moderate size of 90° conical-nosed missiles. The minimum impact speed that generated cracks through the thickness of the wall, termed the speed for rupture, was measured, and various modes of rupture were identified. For a thin tube hit by a missile at a normal angle of obliquity at the speed for rupture, the contact region spreads across the nose of the missile, and the transverse shear deformation is predominant in the final failure process. If the angle of obliquity is 30°, the missile pierces a hole through the wall of the tube. At the speed for rupture, the kinetic energy of the missile for oblique angle 30° is only about 45% that required for plugging at a normal angle of obliquity. The project sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 19842001, 19872048) and Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars of State Education Commission and Shanxi Province of China.