Numerical study on the damage of liquid-filled containers subjected to shaped charge jet impact

In the studies of the vulnerability of armored vehicles, the impact of high-velocity penetrators on liquid-filled container components is one of the critical concerns. The purpose of this study is to investigate the structural damage of the liquid-filled container subjected to shaped charge jet impact utilizing the Structural Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method in ANSYS/LS-DYNA. The numerical model is validated against available experimental data. The validation effort of the numerical model showed very good agreements with experiments in terms of radial shock wave and radial crater formation as a function of time. Using the validated model, the liquid pressure, the energy transfer as well as the influence of overmatch on the impact process were analyzed. The results indicate that the structural damage modes of containers under shaped charge jet impact include perforation and wall deformation. Perforation results from the penetration of the jet tip and tail, while wall deformation is caused by the high-velocity impact of the flowing liquid. In cases where the overmatch (OM) is equal to 1, the contribution of the tip to front and back wall perforation increment primarily depends on the impact velocity. In cases with OM less than 1, the “filtering effect” of the Rolled Homogeneous Armor (RHA) armor plate leads to the loss of the tail's contribution to front wall perforation.