SIMILARITY LAWS AND SCALING OF PENETRATION TESTS

In this paper, the response of the spherical cavity expansion theory is used to analyze the penetration of the target under the impact of the missile, and a general form of the penetration similarity is established based on the dimension theory. The analysis of the existing experimental data of the projectile shows that the non-dimensional penetration depth curve is deflected and shifted for difierent penetration speeds. With the strain-rate efiect and the damage evolution of the material, the geometric similarity laws do not hold true for the brittle materials such as the concretes. It is necessary to introduce a correction of the geometric similarity law to account for the strain-rate efiect and the damage evolution of the material.