Numerical investigations on the sabots discard process of an APFSDS at different angles of attack

Abstract

Sabot asymmetric discard after the projectile being launched from the muzzle at various angles of attack and 4Ma is investigated. This is implemented by the coupling computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and six degrees-of-freedom exterior ballistic code through the unstructured dynamic mesh and user defined function. The flow field characteristics during sabot discard process and the trajectory parameters of all three sabots have been obtained. In addition, the aerodynamic coefficients of the projectile are also obtained. The numerical results show that the asymmetric discard of sabot is more obvious along with the increasing angle of attack. Moreover, the aerodynamic forces of projectile have a larger change and the pressure distribution of its surface is more asymmetric and complex. This means the aerodynamic interference at a non-zero angle of attack contributes more significantly to shooting dispersion and flight stability than that at zero angle of attack and the influence increases as the angle of attack increases.

Keywords

• computational fluid dynamics
• ballistics
• projectiles
• defence industry
• weapons
• aerodynamics
• mechanical stability
• aerodynamic interference
• attack increases
• numerical investigations
• sabot asymmetric discard
• coupling CFD
• unstructured dynamic mesh
• user defined function
• flow field characteristics
• sabot discard process
• trajectory parameters
• aerodynamic coefficients
• APFSDS
• six degrees-of-freedom exterior ballistic code
• increasing angle of attack
• projectile aerodynamic forces
• pressure distribution
• nonzero angle of attack
• shooting dispersion
• flight stability