Evaluation of Critical Ricochet Angles for 25mm APDS-T Projectile on Metallic Targets - Modeling and Verification

This paper is a study on ricochet characteristics of metal plates hit by 25 mm APDS-T projectile. A series of ballistic tests has been carried out on three different armor steel types chosen to present a range of hardness. Each armor steel target was impacted at varying angles of incidence until ricochet was observed. This investigation is not only expected to help in understanding the phenomenon of projectile ricochet but also to provide some useful data that can be used for calibration and validation of the finite element (FE) models. In general, the ricochet angle was found to decrease with an increase in target hardness due to different failure mechanism.