A tungsten fiber/Zr-based bulk metallic glass matrix composite (Wf/Zr-MG) is a potential penetrator material. To compare and analyze the penetration behavior of Wf/Zr-MG and a tungsten heavy alloy (WHA), a penetration experiment into the 30CrMnMo homogeneous armor target plate (RHA) is conducted in the present paper, by using a 37 mm smooth bore artillery with an impact velocity of 1550 ± 40 m/s. Unlike the penetrator made of WHA, the self-sharpening phenomenon was observed in the nose of the Wf/Zr-MG rod. The experimental results indicate that the penetration ability of Wf/Zr-MG rod is approximately 10% higher than that of the WHA rod when the impact velocity is 1550 ± 40 m/s. The combined findings on the microscopic morphology, composition, hardness distribution around the crater, and the macroscopic structure of the penetrator residual show that under this impact velocity, the Wf/Zr-MG material shows amorphous gasification. The Wfs outside the rod shows bending and backflow, resulting in the maintenance of the self-sharpening nose of the penetrator during the penetration process. Moreover, the hardness peak around the crater formed by the Wf/Zr-MG rod is lower, and the penetration crater is straighter, indicating that the Wf/Zr-MG rod has a stronger slag removal ability, lower penetration resistance, and higher penetration efficiency. It is an ideal penetrator material.

Based on mechanical properties of Polyamide 66 (PA66) under complex loading conditions, a Drucker–Prager yield criterion was employed to characterize its yield behavior. Then, a one-dimensional model, which contains a viscoelastic regime and a viscoplastic regime, was introduced and converted into a three-dimensional constitutive model. The three-dimensional model was implemented into a LS-DYNA software, which was used to predict the dynamic response of PA66 under Taylor impact conditions, whose corresponding tests were conducted by gas gun and recorded by high-speed camera. By contrasting the simulation results and these of the corresponding tests, the deformed shapes including the residual length, the maximum diameter and the shape of the mushroom head of the PA66 bars were found to be similar to these obtained from the tests, which verified the accuracy of the three-dimensional constitutive model, and proved that the model was able to be applied to high-rate impact loading conditions.

The finite element model of oblique penetration of short-rod projectile into a thin metal target was established and the effectiveness of the model was verified to study the oblique penetration law of short-rod projectile into a thin metal target. The simulation calculation of short-rod projectile penetrating thin metal targets with different obliquities at different impact velocities was carried out. The simulation results show that the critical ricochet velocity of the projectile increased with the increase of the obliquity of the target plate, as well as the increment of the critical ricochet velocity of the projectile. With the increase in the obliquity of the target plate, the ultimate penetration velocity of the projectile increases exponentially, and when the obliquity is large, the ultimate penetration velocity increases sharply. When the projectile ricocheted without invading the target, the velocity attenuation of the projectile increased with the increase of the impact velocity, whereas the mass of the residual projectile decreased. However, when the impact velocity exceeds the ultimate penetration velocity of the projectile to the target plate, the velocity attenuation of the projectile decreased and the mass of the residual projectile increased with the increase of the impact velocity. With the increase of impact velocity, the included angle decreased gradually, and the decreasing trend also slowed down. When the impact velocity was just greater than the ultimate penetration velocity, the included angle was the largest. At the same impact velocity, the greater the obliquity of the target plate, the greater the included angle. This study is of great significance to reveal the critical ricochet and ultimate penetration of projectile, the velocity, mass, and trajectory change in the process of penetration, as well as the damage of projectile to the target plate.

In order to adapt to the launch velocity of modern artillery, it is necessary to study the fracture mechanism of the high-velocity penetration of penetrators. Therefore, the penetration fracture mode of tungsten-fiber-reinforced Zr-based bulk metallic glass matrix composite (WF/Zr-MG) rods at a high velocity is studied. An experiment on WF/Zr-MG rods penetrating into rolled homogeneous armor steel (RHA) was carried out at 1470~1650 m/s. The experimental results show that the higher penetration ability of WF/Zr-MG rods not only results from their “self-sharpening” feature, but also due to the fact they have a longer quasi-steady penetration phase than tungsten alloy (WHA) rods. Above 1500 m/s, the penetration fracture mode of the WF/Zr-MG rod is the bending and backflow of tungsten fibers. Our theoretical calculation shows that the deformation mode of the Zr-based bulk metallic glass matrix (Zr-MG) is an important factor affecting the penetration fracture mode of the WF/Zr-MG rod. When the impact velocity increases from 1000 m/s to 1500 m/s, the deformation mode of Zr-MG changes from shear localization to non-Newtonian flow, leading to a change in the penetration fracture mode of the WF/Zr-MG rod from shear fracture to the bending and backflow of tungsten fibers.

In order to study the critical ricochet velocity and critical penetration velocity of tungsten alloy rod obliquely penetrating a finite-thickness metal plate, experiment and numerical calculation of tungsten alloy rod impacting on homogeneous armor steel plate with a thickness of 30mm at an angle of 60° were carried out. Compared the experimental and numerical results with the results using models, it is found that, the results of the ricochet models proposed by Tate, Rosenberg and Steven B for semi-infinite thick plate are quite different from those of experiment and numerical calculation, so they can not be applied to the ricochet situation of finite-thickness plate. The critical penetration velocity model proposed by De Marre and Zhao are in good agreement with the numerical and experimental results, which can predict critical penetration velocity of tungsten alloy rod obliquely penetrating a finite-thickness metal plate with large impact angle. The penetration depth of the projectile under the critical ricochet velocity is about 1/3 of the thickness of the target plate, and the angle between the ejection trajectory of the fragments produced by projectile and target plate and projectile penetration trajectory is exactly 90° in the first penetration stage.