Damage question?

[noname]

Just wondering why sometimes a tank will have a hole in it's armour from a hit. Sometimes A big piece is broken out of it's side. Has this got to do with they type of shell that hit it, the number of hits in one spot, an explosion? Not really sure. Thanks

 

[spud]

Side Armor wasn't as thick as front armor and at the rear weaker again, As for it breaking i would suspect bad steel methods had a part to play in it. not sure about the shell tough

 

[andrei383]

afaik, there's several factors that will affect the damage, the type of projectile, the type of armor, angles, velocities, hit location, etc.

for example, there are some projectiles classed as penetrators, which aim to pierce a hole in armor and damage whatever's inside. these will usually create a clean entry hole in the armor

then there are some high explosive projectiles (such as HESH rounds) meant to make a large enough explosion such that the concussive force does the damage within the tank without penetration of armor

the location of the hit can also play a part, some areas are less armored than others, or, in the case of tanks, the stored ammunition can cause a secondary explosion, resulting in more damage

if you really want to get into details, the molecular structure of the metal in the armor may affect the damage as well, some metals or the manufacturing may induce brittleness or higher stress concentrations in certain parts making them more prone to breaking rather than bending under load

in short, theres really many variables that come into play and theres no one definitve answer, but i hope this helped give some insight ;D

 

[noname]

Thanks for the reply guys. Makes sense. I guess there is no particular reason but rather several.

 

[Dennis McQuillen]

Armor by it's very nature is extremely hard. Think of it like butter and glass. Butter is easy to penetrate but also very pliable and easily deformed with just your finger, which is just one reason tanks are not made of butter. Glass on the other hand is much more difficult to penetrate with just your finger (unless you are some crazy karate expert maybe), but if you do manage to penetrate it, it does not bend but shatters. Armor plate is the same way. When it is penetrated, it sometimes just shatters like glass. The harder it is the more likely it is to shatter but the more difficult it is to penetrate. There is kind of a trade off, it is harder to penetrate but when it fails it REALLY fails.

I am talking just about WWII steel plate armor. Modern composite armor works a little different and does not rely entirely on hardness.

Hope that helps,
Dennis

 

[Beobachtungsbereich]

There are all kinds of different armour being used these days.

Spaced, homogenous, cast, plate, laminated, ceramic, Chobam, DU....the list goes on and on.

Then there are reactive and appliqué armour which adds to the protective package.

All of these will deflect, deform or slow a rounds effect of penetrating into the fighting compartment. I have fired service 120mm HEAT at a T72 at approx 2500m and it went clear through the turret.

The only visual sign that it was hit was a small hole ringed by some clean metal and a bit of spall. That and the hatches went flying about 100m in the air.

Same goes for sabot (APFSDS-T).

HESH leaves a large shaped burn and slight disfiguring of the target while on the inside its pure mayhem. Picture hitting a rusty bucket with a hammer. The crap flying around is like the spall inside the tank when hit, except flying around at explosive speeds, hence the invention of spall liners in modern tanks.

It all depends on what type of carnage you want to recreate and from what era. Your best bet is to find a good reference photo and go off that.

Hope that helps.

Regards

 

[noname]

Thanks for the comments guys. Ya, I've seen pics of clean holes right through a turret and then of course some turrets broken up like styrofoam. I will use reference photos whenever I am ready to build a wreck. I was just wondering if there were any particular reasons for the different damage. But as suspected, there could be several reasons. Thanks again.