A study of projectile motion on impact with thin aluminium plates
Master Thesis
1975
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
A new technique has been developed to examine projectile motion on impact with thin aluminium plates. A brief review of the field of penetration is given to show where the need for the present research arises. This is followed by an examination of alternative methods which could be used to determine penetration behaviour of projectiles and a discussion of their respective merits. Any impact phenomenon of elastic bodies is accompanied by inherent vibrations. Because of the greater sensitivity of the method used by the author over previous methods, vibrations set up in the projectile sensing mechanism played a very significant role in the penetration process. To take account of the vibration phenomenon, recourse was made to Masket's (1949) work which enables the motion of the centre of mass of the projectile to be determined from a knowledge of the motion of any point on the projectile. The new technique has many advantages over previous methods, the main one being the simultaneous production of deceleration-time data as the projectile penetrates the target material. Although the data must still be processed to remove superimposed vibrations, it does not have to undergo the drastic smoothing process of double differentiation used in previous methods. Because of this, the overall characteristic shape of the deceleration-time plot is preserved.
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Includes bibliographical references.
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Pearson, G. 1975. A study of projectile motion on impact with thin aluminium plates. University of Cape Town.