Thread: Bullet shockwaves

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Velocity is everything in this regard weight hardly has any bearing. The kinetic energy of the projectile turns to heat which melts the steel in a localised area and its splashed out so it looks like one of the craters on the moon

The mechanism is plastic deformation of metals, it's a similar (in effect) process to cold drawing alloy cylinders with a massive press pushing onto a disc of ali alloy. The pressure gets to a point where the alloy turns plastic and just flows back up the punch - very weird to watch in operation.

If you get up over a certain velocity and energy level, the metal just deforms and flows around the thing hitting it. It's the effect for which the sabotted tungsten anti-armour penetrators are designed to achieve 'kills' on armoured vehicles.