Technique to Improve Precision of Kinetic Energy Projectiles Through Motion Study

Anti tank Kinetic Energy (KE) projectiles are generally sabot launched with initial velocities of about 5 to 6 Mach. Accuracy and Lethality is the topmost priority of the design of such KE Projectiles. Accuracy of strike is mostly affected due to the discard of the sabot encapsulating the projectile. It is also important to analyze the free flight of the projectile for the same reasons. In an effort made to study the sabot discard and free flight of penetrator, a computational code has been developed and named MK-Code, to predict the disturbances in projectile and determine optimization in sabot design practices. The experimental test data available for a known sabot configuration was used to validate the pressure distribution model used in MK- Code, and firing test results on another sabot package are used to validate the code with respect to the perturbations produced by the sabot during its discard. In addition, based on pitching moment figure-of-merit, the factors affecting the accuracy of the projectile are analyzed, which have been used to propose design guidelines for the KE Projectiles.