Simulation of Bullet Fragmentation and Penetration in Granular Media
Froylan Alonso Soriano-Moranchel,
Juan Manuel Sandoval-Pineda,
Guadalupe Juliana Gutiérrez-Paredes,
Usiel Sandino Silva-Rivera,
Luis Armando Flores-Herrera
Affiliations
Froylan Alonso Soriano-Moranchel
Postgraduate Studies and Research Section, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Higher School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, U. Azcapotzalco, Av. Granjas 682, Mexico City 02250, Mexico
Juan Manuel Sandoval-Pineda
Postgraduate Studies and Research Section, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Higher School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, U. Azcapotzalco, Av. Granjas 682, Mexico City 02250, Mexico
Guadalupe Juliana Gutiérrez-Paredes
Postgraduate Studies and Research Section, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Higher School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, U. Azcapotzalco, Av. Granjas 682, Mexico City 02250, Mexico
Usiel Sandino Silva-Rivera
SEDENA, D.G.E.M., Rectory of the Army and Air Force University, Escuela Militar de Ingenieros, Av. Industria Militar 261, Naucalpan de Juarez 53960, Estado de Mexico, Mexico
Luis Armando Flores-Herrera
Postgraduate Studies and Research Section, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Higher School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, U. Azcapotzalco, Av. Granjas 682, Mexico City 02250, Mexico
The aim of this work is to simulate the fragmentation of bullets impacted through granular media, in this case, sand. In order to validate the simulation, a group of experiments were conducted with the sand contained in two different box prototypes. The walls of the first box were constructed with fiberglass and the second with plywood. The prototypes were subjected to the impact force of bullets fired 15 m away from the box. After the shots, X-ray photographs were taken to observe the penetration depth. Transient numerical analyses were conducted to simulate these physical phenomena by using the smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) module of ANSYS® 2019 AUTODYN software. Advantageously, this module considers the granular media as a group of uniform particles capable of transferring kinetic energy during the elastic collision component of an impact. The experimental results demonstrated a reduction in the maximum bullet kinetic energy of 2750 J to 100 J in 0.8 ms. The numerical results compared with the X-ray photographs showed similar results demonstrating the capability of sand to dissipate kinetic energy and the fragmentation of the bullet caused at the moment of impact.
