Rapid Autodyn-3D penetration simulations using a virtual target

By taking advantage of the possibilities for developing user subroutines in Autodyn-3D, we implement a method that uses a virtual target to decrease runtimes for 3D problems by several orders of magnitude. The new method uses results from analytical penetration theory based on cavity expansion to estimate the stress on the projectile. This eliminates the need to model the target explicitly. In this way we combine the Autodyn user interface and computational algorithms with analytical theory to create a very powerful tool.