Projectile Penetration into Sand Media

PI: Ron Guenther

(June 16, 2001 - September 30, 2005)

This grant is part of an initiative sponsored by the Office of Naval
Research under the title of Surf Zone Technology.  The long term goal
is the elimination of mines in the near shore of coastal regions.  In
the research, we study the behavior of projectiles penetrating sandy
media with velocities of between 500 and 1500 meters per second.
There are a number of phenomena we are interested in including the
depth of penetration, the time of penetration, the description of the
shock wave initiated by the projectile, and cratering.  The medium is
thought of as being a visco-plastic medium and is assumed to be either
partially or fully saturated with water.  The equations describing the
behavior of the system are derived from first principles of continuum
mechanics and lead to systems of partial differential equations.