EFFECT OF AIR GAPS ON THE BALLISTIC RESISTANCE OF DUCTILE SHIELDS PERFORATED BY NONCONICAL IMPACTORS

In Int. J. Solids Struct. 35:23 (1998), pp. 3097-3103, we proved that localized interaction model (LIM) for shield-impactor interaction implies independence of the ballistic limit velocity (BLV) of spaced shield on air gaps and their widths for conical striker. In this study, the effect of deviation from a conical shape on ballistic properties of spaced shield is investigated using two-term LIM. It is found that this effect is insignificant and it causes small changes (of the order of few percent) in the magnitude of the BLV and energy absorbed by a shield. These theoretical predictions are in agreement with the available experimental results.