Ballistic limit
The ballistic limit or limit velocity is the velocity required for a particular projectile to reliably penetrate a particular piece of material. In other words, a given projectile will generally not pierce a given target when the projectile velocity is lower than the ballistic limit. The term ballistic limit is used specifically in the context of armor; limit velocity is used in other contexts.
The ballistic limit equation for laminates, as derived by Reid and Wen is as follows:
where
- is the ballistic limit
- is a projectile constant determined experimentally
- is the density of the laminate
- is the static linear elastic compression limit
- is the diameter of the projectile
- is the thickness of the laminate
- is the mass of the projectile
where