Penetration and induced damage evolution of concrete and granite when subjected to multiple projectile impacts

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the penetration process of multiple impacts into concrete targets. The concrete targets were subjected to repeated constant velocity impacts with an ogive nose projectile. The penetration and crater formation data were consistent with single impact penetration data from previous studies conducted at Sandia National Laboratories.; In order to predict the depth of the multiple impact penetration, a single impact penetration model, developed by M. Forrestal at Sandia National Laboratories, was extended to account for the degradation of the target strength with each subsequent impact. The degradation of the target was determined empirically and included in the model as a strength-modifying factor.; To further understand the multiple impact penetration process, a study was conducted to look at both the static and dynamic properties of concrete and granite as a function of induced damage.; Both static and dynamic compression experiments were performed on concrete and granite specimens with various levels of induced damage. The static compressive strength of both materials decreased with increasing levels of damage due to the induced damage causing the activation and propagation of failure cracks in the specimens. In contrast, the dynamic compressive strength remained unchanged with increasing damage due to the inability of the fracture process zone to develop and relieve the strain energy before complete specimen failure.; A series of dynamic and static tensile-splitting experiments were performed on concrete and granite specimens to investigate the effect of induced damage on their tensile strength. The experiments showed that the static splitting strength was highly dependent on the orientation of the induced damage with regard to the applied loading, however the dynamic tensile strength decreased with increasing damage with no apparent dependency on the random damage orientation. Photoelastic experiments have shown that the mechanism of failure changes for the dynamically tested damaged specimens, reducing their dependence on damage orientation. The photoelastic experiments also determined that the tensile splitting specimen was in equilibrium at the time of failure, and that the dynamic stress field closely resembles the static splitting stress field.