Preliminary study of ballistic impact on an industrial tank: Projectile velocity decay

Nicolas Lecysyn (1) , Aurélia Dandrieux (1) , Frederic Heymes (1) , Pierre Slangen (1) , Laurent Munier (2) , Emmanuel Lapebie (2) , Christian Le Gallic (2) , Gilles Dusserre (1)

1 LGEI - Laboratoire de Génie de l'Environnement Industriel
2 DAM/GRAMAT - GRAMAT

Since the events of September 11, 2001, the possibility of an intentional act targeting the chemical process industry has become realistic. It is, therefore, a great concern to be able to predict the immediate consequences of such an act. This study is intended to improve our knowledge about the sequence of events that occurs when a high-speed bullet (>1000 m s−1) penetrates a vessel filled with toxic liquid. We find that, prior to liquid ejection, several well-defined phases occur, including the phenomenon known as the “hydraulic ram.” This paper focuses on projectile–target interactions and explains how the decay of projectile velocity is related to the initial conditions of the target.

Mots clés: Vessel; Drag model; Fluid; Projectile; Impact

Domaines: Mécanique des structures [physics.class-ph]

Nicolas Lecysyn, Aurélia Dandrieux, Frederic Heymes, Pierre Slangen, Laurent Munier, et al.. Preliminary study of ballistic impact on an industrial tank: Projectile velocity decay. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 2008, 21 (6), pp.627-634. ⟨10.1016/j.jlp.2008.06.006⟩. ⟨hal-02012173⟩