Artillery Shell Energy Loss

An artillery shell with mass m m is shot from level ground with speed v 0 v_0 at an angle θ \theta with respect to ground. The ambient downward gravitational acceleration is g g .

The shell experiences an air drag force with the following form:

F d = α v 2 v ^ \large{\vec{F_d} = -\alpha \, |\vec{v}|^2 \, \hat{v}}

In the above equation, α \alpha is a constant, v |\vec{v}| is the shell's speed, and v ^ \hat{v} is a unit-vector in the direction of the shell's velocity. Right before the shell hits the ground, what is the ratio of its kinetic energy to its kinetic energy at launch?

Details and Assumptions:
1) All constants are in standard SI units
2) m = 20 m = 20
3) v 0 = 1000 v_0 = 1000
4) θ = π / 4 \theta = \pi/4
5) g = 10 g = 10
6) α = 0.0025 \alpha = 0.0025


The answer is 0.0638.

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2 solutions

Karan Chatrath
Dec 29, 2019

The equations of motion read:

m [ x ¨ y ¨ ] = [ 0 m g ] α [ x ˙ x ˙ 2 + y ˙ 2 y ˙ x ˙ 2 + y ˙ 2 ] m\left[\begin{matrix}\ddot{x}\\ \ddot{y}\end{matrix}\right] = \left[\begin{matrix}0\\ -mg\end{matrix}\right] - \alpha \left[\begin{matrix}\dot{x}\sqrt{\dot{x}^2 + \dot{y}^2}\\ \dot{y}\sqrt{\dot{x}^2 + \dot{y}^2}\end{matrix}\right]

This can be combined with the velocity vector to obtain a state-vector as follows. Let x 1 = x x_1 = x , x 2 = y x_2 = y , x 3 = x ˙ x_3 = \dot{x} , x 4 = y ˙ x_4 = \dot{y} . Then:

x ˙ 1 = x 3 \dot{x}_1 = x_3 x ˙ 2 = x 4 \dot{x}_2 = x_4 [ x ˙ 3 x ˙ 4 ] = [ 0 g ] α m [ x 3 x 3 2 + x 4 2 x 4 x 3 2 + x 4 2 ] \left[\begin{matrix}\dot{x}_3\\ \dot{x}_4\end{matrix}\right] = \left[\begin{matrix}0\\ -g\end{matrix}\right] - \frac{\alpha}{m} \left[\begin{matrix}x_3\sqrt{x_3^2 + x_4^2}\\ x_4\sqrt{x_3^2 + x_4^2}\end{matrix}\right]

This implies:

[ x ˙ 1 x ˙ 2 x ˙ 3 x ˙ 4 ] = [ x 3 x 4 α m ( x 3 x 3 2 + x 4 2 ) g α m ( x 4 x 3 2 + x 4 2 ) ] X ˙ = f ( X ) \left[\begin{matrix}\dot{x}_1\\ \dot{x}_2\\\dot{x}_3\\ \dot{x}_4\end{matrix}\right] = \left[\begin{matrix}x_3\\x_4\\-\frac{\alpha}{m}\left(x_3\sqrt{x_3^2 + x_4^2}\right)\\ -g-\frac{\alpha}{m}\left(x_4\sqrt{x_3^2 + x_4^2}\right) \end{matrix}\right] \implies \dot{X} = f(X)

Initial Conditions:

X ( 0 ) = [ 0 0 v o cos θ v o sin θ ] T X(0) = \left[\begin{matrix}0&0&v_o\cos{\theta}&v_o\sin{\theta}\end{matrix}\right]^T

The expression for kinetic energy is:

T = 1 2 [ x ˙ y ˙ ] [ m 0 0 m ] [ x ˙ y ˙ ] T = \frac{1}{2}\left[\begin{matrix}\dot{x}& \dot{y}\end{matrix}\right] \left[\begin{matrix}m&0\\ 0&m\end{matrix}\right]\left[\begin{matrix}\dot{x}\\ \dot{y}\end{matrix}\right]

From here, numerical integration does the job. Code attached below:

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clear all
clc

% Parameter Initialisation:
m       = 20;
vo      = 1000;
th      = pi/4;
g       = 10;
A       = 0.0025;

% Time initialisation:
dt      = 1e-5;
tf      = 75;
t       = 0:dt:tf;

% Initial conditions:
xs(:,1) = [0;0;vo*cos(th);vo*sin(th)];

for k = 2:length(t)

    % Instantaneous velocity vector:
    dx  = [xs(3,k-1);xs(4,k-1)];

    % Instantaneous acceleration vector:
    ddx = ([0;-m*g] + (-A*norm(dx)*dx))/m;

    % State vector:
    f  = [dx;ddx];

    % Explicit Euler:
    xs(:,k) = xs(:,k-1) + dt*f;

    % Checking when projectile hits ground:
    % Y-coordinate should be near zero
    if t(k) > 10 && abs(xs(2,k)) <= 1e-2
        break;
    end
end

% Kinetic energy ratio computation:
M     = m*eye(2);
V_end = [xs(3,end);xs(4,end)];
V_L   = [xs(3,1);xs(4,1)];

Ratio = (0.5*V_end'*M*V_end)/(0.5*V_L'*M*V_L)
% Ratio = 0.0638

Thanks for the solution. I think the parameters are fairly realistic. It is remarkable how little kinetic energy it hits the ground with, relatively speaking.

Steven Chase - 1 year, 5 months ago

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Thanks for sharing these insightful observations. When I was solving the problem, I noticed how small the ratio was but did not read into it any further. This result is in contrast with the no-drag case where the kinetic energy at launch and land are the same.

Karan Chatrath - 1 year, 5 months ago
Steven Chase
Dec 29, 2019

@Karan Chatrath has provided a detailed solution. I will just add a few observations. The projectile lands with remarkably little kinetic energy (only 6 percent of its starting kinetic energy). It also has a steeper trajectory upon landing then at launch (75 degrees at landing vs. 45 at launch).

A plot of the trajectory is attached, along with simulation code:

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import math

m = 20.0
v0 = 1000.0
theta = math.pi/4.0
g = 10.0
alpha = 1.0 * 0.0025


################################

E0 = 0.5*m*(v0**2.0)

dt = 10.0**(-5.0)

################################

t = 0.0

x = 0.0
y = 0.0

xd = v0*math.cos(theta)
yd = v0*math.sin(theta)

xdd = 0.0
ydd = 0.0

count = 0

while y >= 0.0:

    x = x + xd * dt
    y = y + yd * dt

    xd = xd + xdd * dt
    yd = yd + ydd * dt

    v = math.hypot(xd,yd)
    E = 0.5*m*(v**2.0)

    ux = xd/v
    uy = yd/v

    Fgx = 0.0
    Fgy = -m*g

    Fd = alpha*(v**2.0)

    Fdx = Fd*(-ux)
    Fdy = Fd*(-uy)

    Fx = Fgx + Fdx
    Fy = Fgy + Fdy

    xdd = Fx/m
    ydd = Fy/m

    t = t + dt
    count = count + 1

    if count % 1000 == 0:
        print t,x,y

################################

print ""
print ""

print dt
print t
print alpha
print ""
print x
print y
print ""
print (v/v0)
print (E/E0)
print ""
print 180.0 * math.atan(-yd/xd) / math.pi

@Steven Chase Please reply this comment.and I am serious.
I am planning to open my own electric car company in India . So I am thinking about the logo and name of my vehicle company.
And I am thinking to use the spring logo which you have made .
In my opinion it will be attractive ,do you think?
And can I use ,what do you think ?
Please reply as because I am not asking any your personal information.
Thanks in advance.

Talulah Riley - 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Yes, feel free to use the image. I am fond of it myself

Steven Chase - 4 months, 3 weeks ago

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