Design and development of new spiral head projectiles undergoing ballistics impact

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to design and develop new spiral head projectiles undergoing ballistics impact.Design/methodology/approachThe introduction of the rifled barrel in firearms made projectile spin during its flight path. The central translational velocity (impact velocity) is one parameter to defeat/penetrate the target in the penetration process. Another important parameter considered to be the shape of the projectile. Many types of projectile shapes have been designed to defeat the target. In the recent years, ogival nose shape is one of the well-known projectile shapes in use abundantly. The present research is made to design the nose shape so as to use the spin during the penetration of target effectively. In this study, a new spiral head projectile shape is proposed and designed, which uses the rotation of projectile (spin) for penetrating the Al7075-T6 target. When the ogive and new spiral head projectile is impacted on Al 7075-T6 target of 12.5 mm, 18 mm thicknesses at ordnance velocities, the residual velocity is evaluated numerically using ANSYS/Explicit Dynamics at normal impact condition. Two projectile materials, steel 4340 and tungsten alloy, are used as projectile materials. Along with the translational velocity, rotation velocities (spin rate) 13,000, 26,000 and 52,000 rad/s also provided to projectile. The residual velocities verses spin rate are plotted for different spiral angle projectiles for impact velocities 1,000–1,500 m/s, at normal impact conditions on the Al 7075-T6 target. Compared with the ogive nose projectile, the proposed new spiral head projectile made of tungsten alloy is significantly effective.FindingsSpiral head projectile having tungsten alloy material gives encouraging results at 12.5 mm target thickness. The new spiral head projectile is damaged partially. At 18 mm target thickness impact conditions, it is observed that the projectile head is completely damaged. The effectiveness of spiral head projectile on a target plate thickness of 18 mm is considered to study the impact condition.Research limitations/implicationsAll the above results need to be experimentally verified. However, the basic numerical model used in the present study, i.e. the basic ogive nose numerical model with only translational energy, is well validated with penetration theory available in literatures.Practical implicationsThe designed new spiral head projectile is only effective with tungsten alloy material within considered design parameters. For steel 4340 material, the spiral head projectile is less effective than the ogive nose projectile. In tungsten alloy projectiles, by observing all considered spiral angles, 30-degree spiral angle projectile gives the best performance at most of the considered impact velocity conditions.Originality/valueThe proposed research outputs are original, innovative and, have lot of importance in defence applications particularly in arms and ammunitions.