Numerical and Experimental Study on the Deformation Behavior of 9-MM Parabellum Bullet Impact to the Concrete Target

Abstract

For shooting scene reconstruction, it has been demonstrated that knowledge about the deformation behavior of bullets can provide beneficial information. In this article, a 3D finite element model of the worldwide-used 9 mm Parabellum bullet impact on the concrete target has been developed with the commercial finite element software, ls-dyna. And the numerical model was validated by the comparison between the numerical and the experimental results. A deformation criteria C was defined to estimate the impact velocity for normal impact events. For oblique impact events, the characteristic parameters, such as the length of bullet, the maximum diameter, the long axis of elliptical interaction zone of bullet with target, the intercept angle between the initial approximate plane of impact and bullet’s axis, are analyzed to evaluate the bullet’s velocity and direction on impact. The calculation suggests that the intercept angle can be used to estimate the impact angle when the impact velocity is not more than the threshold value that leads the cracking of bullets. And the long axis of the elliptical interaction zone is more suitable for evaluating the impact velocity, compared with the bullet’s diameter and length. This study may be significant for shooting scene reconstruction.