Blast and Fragmentation Studies of a Scaled Down Artillery Shell-Simulation and Experimental Approaches

Blast and fragmentation of a scaled down model of standard artillery shell is investigated experimentally and numerically. Simple experimental techniques are employed in this study to measure the fragments’ velocity, mass and spatial distribution. Fragments of mass ranging from tens of milligram(s) to 6.4 grams are produced with velocities ranging from 960 to 1555 m/s. The cylindrical part of the shell has larger contribution among high velocity fragments ~1369-1555m/s than the conical and rear parts due to higher charge to mass (C/M) ratio. Overpressure of 44.2psi (304.7kPa) is measured at stand-off distance of 0.550m. The numerical simulation of fragmentation is carried out using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) solver available in ANSYS AUTODYN. A coupled Euler-ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) approach is used to simulate the shell blast propagation in the surrounding air. A good agreement is achieved between the simulation and experimental results. The investigation can help in the development of protective configurations against the damaging effects of blast and fragmentation.