Air Gun Pressure Influence on the Projectile Penetration of a 2mm Mild Steel Plate
Guns that operate on compressed air (Air Guns) are widely used in entertainment business. They are very common in Paintball and Airsoft competitive team sports and in performance riffles. Projectiles fired from these types of guns can reach more than 400 m/s. A Projectile weighing 5 g at this velocity has a kinetic energy of 400 J upon impact. This energy is sufficient for skin penetration and infliction of serious life threating injuries. This paper deals with projectile velocities, achieved with compressed air, needed for full penetration of the mild steel plate of 2 mm thickness. Projectile firing has been performed with custom made Air Gun capable of reaching compressed air levels up to 10 MPa and projectile velocities up to 160 m/s. Velocity of the fired projectiles has been recorded with High Speed camera after which it was possible to determine kinetic energy upon the impact and energy density as well. Experiments presented in this paper show that compressed air operated guns can deliver significant kinetic energy to the target, capable of inflicting serious injuries