Improvement and Simulation of THOR Formula with Yaw Angle

Abstract

The THOR formula is widely used in the investigation of vulnerability and effectiveness of weapon system, however, its application was limited by the small slenderness ratio and limited materials of target. In order to investigate the damage effect of KE-rod warhead, this paper, basing on the classic THOR formula, focused on improving the formula of residual velocity and residual mass. The improved THOR model could predict the residual velocity and residual mass of KE-rod penetration in the complex conditions, and the predictions were found to be consistent with the experimental numerical results in the literatures. As the experimental data is limited, for the better validation of the improved formula, the paper investigated further research and verification of the improvement THOR formula with numerical simulation. Since the experimental data are limited for hypervelocity impact, comparisons of results between M-THOR with experimental and numerical data were widely preceded. The error is less than 4.8% for the predicted residual velocity while 5.4% for predicted residual velocity. The effect of yaw angle in the modified THOR formula was also found to agree quite well with the reference.

Keywords

• penetration
• projectile
• target
• KE-rod
• yaw angle
• improvement
• calculation