Tungsten carbide core 12.7x99 mm AP projectiles ballistic behavior against high hardness steel armor

Abstract

This paper studies the ballistic behavior of developed 12.7x99mm armor-piercing (AP) projectiles with Tungsten Carbide Core. The development of AP projectiles aims to improve their penetration abilities against high-strength alloy steel targets. Different designs have been modeled in order to determine their penetration capabilities to choose the best design compared with that of traditional 12.7x99mm AP projectile. The study includes, the ballistic performance and stability of the newly developed bullets have been evaluated using PRODAS. Then, Numerical simulations in the environment of ANSYS have been carried out for the developed configurations as well as the traditional AP one to predict their penetration abilities. Finally and according to the PRODAS and simulation results, the designs with best results are chosen to be manufactured and tested by firing against ARMOX-500 steel alloy targets. The results show that the stability has been achieved and the penetration ability for one of the developed projectiles is more than traditional AP projectiles by 150%.