Sloped fronts on armored vehicles: Why?

Question

I've been doing some research on armored vehicles (for a 3D modelling assignment), specifically Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs), and I've seen that some of them has a very gentle slope for its front.

Does this in anyway affect its frontal armor's resistance to heavy machine gun rounds, artillery fragments, and assault rifle rounds? Or does it merely make it harder to aim at, since it'll be more flat?

Or is it that the more gentle the slop of the frontal armor, the more resistance to rounds fired from the ground, but the protection is diminished when fired upon from higher ground, since the full force of the round will be taken by the armor? Something like this:

http://img49.imageshack.us/my.php?image=directionofforceofbullest9.jpg

Answer 1

small arms fire will tend to deflect and splatter

the angle increases the ballistic thickness. This is the thickness that a round coming straight at the vehicle encounters.

if the panel was vertical, a round perp to the panel encounters 1X thickness

if the panel was at 45 degrees, the ballistic thickness thickness is 1.4X the panel thickness

now put the panel at 30 degrees, etc

if you were able to see the hulls through the side plates, you would see the sides slope up and down from the middle

Answer 2

Sloped armour was made popular by revolutionary tank design from WWII, Operation Barbarosa. The tank was the Soviet T-34 76A. Sloped armour has properties of increased deflection and increased thickness while minimising weight. The Germans quickly copied this idea on the new Panzer V, Panther.

Draw two pieces of armour, one vertical, one at 45%. The thickness does not matter provided you are consistent. Now put a horizontal line through both and measure the relative thickness of the armour. Given two identical plates of steel, relative thickness is increased.

If the target vehicle is hit from higher ground then the shot will have a better chance of penetration. This is called "shot falling." Another way to achieve shot falling is to fire from longer range, but when you do this your shell loses muzzle velocity because of friction with the air.

Another similar weakness in Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV's) is called a "shot trap." A shot trap is a point on the vehicle where a round has a greater probability of penetration. A typical shot trap is an inverted corner where two plates of armour meet. A good way to eliminate shot traps is to use a spherical design, such as on the turrent of the Soviet Joseph Stalin 2 from 1945.

While the Soviets did make significant advances to AFV's during WWII. The Germans were able to retain a technological edge. Advantages retained by the Germans included:
Engines were more reliable and powerful enabling heavier armour.
Guns had greater muzzle velocity enabling greater armour penetration.
Optical systems enabled greater accuracy and range finding.
Communication equipment was more common and reliable.
Crews were better trained in Panzer tactics.
So the overall package is important, not just the armour.

The British and American Tanks of the era were not as good, even at the end of the war. The historical accounts of Tiger 1s at Kasserine Pass, and Tiger 2s at the Battle of the Bulge are good sources. Having said that, you should also look up an American Tank called a Hellcat. It was small, lightly armoured with a little pop gun. But it could fire a small number of special APDS rounds. It had the speed to get behind a Tiger and its APDS round could penetrate the weaker armour at point blank range.

Tanks ruled the battlefield until the Arab Israel War of 1973 when the Arabs used man portable Sagger millises to destroy large numbers of Israel tanks at long range. After that, military thinking went back to combined arms strategy.

The armour of today is sloped and curved with special layers to enhance the probablity of crew life. A medieval knight was once asked about his suit of armour. He said it provided adequate protection, not invulnerablity.

Answer 3

lol....
Amour plating is at the slope of 60 degree cos this gives the tendency for the round to bound off when impacted and with the 60 degree sloping, the thinkness of the amour plating increased to twice of the original thickness.

If the amour plating constructed at 90 degree, the amour peicring bullet will definitely pushing throught the plate becos big surface area have the tendency of weak hardness resistance and the thickness of amour plating did not increase and able to stop the piercing bullet.

Same like injection needles Ouch that's hurt. lol..

The principle is the same as wild goose chasing by cops. A straight road driven car is hard to stop therefore police is alway push the backside of the car and the car just got side way. hahaha...

Alamak so simple logic u dunno? :P

Answer 4

Armor-piercing ammunition is used to penetrate hardened armored aims which include ballistic vests, automobile armor, concrete, tanks, and different defenses, searching on the usual of the firearms. Armor-piercing ammunition contains a penetrator built of hardened metallic, tungsten carbide, or depleted uranium, enclosed interior of a softer jacket, which include copper or aluminium. Armor-piercing ammunition can variety from rifle- and pistol-high quality rounds each and each and every of how as a lot as tank rounds. severe Explosive Incendiary/Armor Piercing Ammunition (HEIAP) is a form of shell which mixes both an armor piercing ability and a severe explosive effect. in this note of that is a cutting-side version of armor piercing shell. The ammunition might want to also be called Semi-armor piercing severe explosive incendiary (SAPHEI).

Answer 5

It is mostly for better deflection of incoming fire. However the reasons may be different for each vehicle.

Do a google or yahoo search and enter your question as the search text.

Answer 6

Think of it like a "cattle catcher" or "cow catcher" on a train. If you run into something, chances are it won't go under, it will get deflected upwards instead of having the vehicle derail or flip.

Answer 7

Look at the German tank it was very similar and the American tank canon would ricksha off.

Answer 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloped_armor