FUEL AS ARMOUR | Bradley vs BMP-3 | 25mm M791 APDS Armour Piercing Simulation

The BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle features a large fuel tank mounted right behind the main armour, but how would it fare against the Bradley’s 25mm APDS from 650m. The arrangement of the BMP-3’s armour was taken from Tankograd, having 10mm HHA, 70mm Air, 12mm HHA, 60mm ABT-102, with the fuel tank being approximated to be 5mm of structural steel. The self-sealing foam was omitted due to difficulty in modelling such structures. The High Hardness Armour (HHA) steel has been modelled with a hardness of 530BHN, with the ABT-102 aluminium alloy using an AA5083 model (which matches experimental data) with the strength increased slightly to account for ABT-102’s increased strength over AA5083. For the simulation, the diesel fuel uses an equation of state model for water, with the density changed to match that of diesel. Water EOS properties were used as ones for diesel could not be found. Unfortunately there isn’t much data to validate the model against, but the cavitation and ineffectiveness of the liquid is inline with some experimental data, but welcome to feedback. While liquid is good at stopping high velocity lead bullets, these are extremely soft compared armour piercing projectiles which would not deform under similar conditions. For reference, videos can be found of low velocity lead bullets from pistols traveling a substantial distance through water and retaining their lethality. Amazing thumbnail artwork from: Ryzhkov