I recently wrote a text explaining why the T-90M armor in war thunder is wrong and that its much better than it should be, however, its purely physics and their own models and it got declined. This is the text. Theres no manuals because the calculations are based on war thunders own models and real life physics.
Do you know if there’s any manuals saying how air layer works in tanks?
The air in the T-90M gives 9.74 mm of RHAe peer 1 mm of air.
The air in the T-90M doesnt block the penetrator, it changes the shape. It can yaw, bend or fracture the long rod of a penetrator based on its velocity, mass and the stiffness of the material.
When the rod passes through the first armor and gets to the layer of air, it is not longer supported by metal and its structure is more prone to damage, however, modern darts are better when it comes to surviving that. Currently in war thunder, all darts act the same against the air layer, however that shouldn’t be the case. There’s totally 18 mm of air, and thag times 9.74 is is 175.32 and it shouldn’t be the same for all darts.
The challenger 2 composite gives roughly 2 mm RHAe per 1 mm composite thickness, and it being around 5 times weaker than simple air doesnt make any sense at all physically.
The RHAe/mm of the air in the T-90M is an issue and should be fixed, make it subjective. And the Challenger 2 composite should be strengthened.
For T-90M (air layer)
Given:
Total RHAe ≈ 540 mm (apfsds to the hull)
Total RHA thickness = 170 mm
Non-RHA thickness = 38 mm (5 + 18 + 5 + 10)
Non-RHA RHAe contribution = 540 − 170 = 370 mm
Air portion:
Air RHAe = 370 x 18/38 = 175.26 mm RHAe
175.26/18 = 9.74
For Challenger 2 (composite)
Given:
Total RHAe = 508 mm (apfsds to the hull)
RHA thickness = 105 mm
Composite thickness = 200 mm
Composite portion:
Composite RHAe = 508 - 105 = 403
403/200 = 2.015
Based of the models of war thunder, 1 mm of air equals 4 mm of the Challenger 2 composite.