When a penetrator with enhanced lateral effect (PELE) impacts on a reinforced concrete (RC) target, the target is damaged with a large opening. An understanding of how PELE projectile parameters affect the opening dimension, is essential for effective design of the PELE projectile. In this study, under the condition that the impact velocity and target parameters (strength and thickness) were fixed values, the important influence factors of the PELE (jacket wall thickness B, jacket material strength Y1, filling material strength Y2 and angle of monolithic jacketθ) were determined by a dimensional analysis. Tests and simulations of the PELE penetrating the RC target were conducted to analyze the influence of these factors on opening diameter ((D), an equivalent diameter under relative kinetic energy). Based on the test and simulation results, it is found that the influence of these factors B, Y1 andθon the deformation mode of the jacket shows a similar trend:as values of the three factors decrease, the jacket deforms from small bending deformation to large one, and then to curling deformation. This causes the opening diameter to first increase with the decrease of these three factors, and then decreases. It is well known that the bending resistance of the jacket is related to these factors B, Y1 andθ. Therefore, a plastic limit bending moment (M0) of the jacket was quoted to characterize the influence of these factors on the bending deformation of the jacket and the opening diameter of the target. The influence factor Y2 causes (D) to first increase with the increase of Y2, and then decreases. A formula was developed to predict the opening diameter, whose influence parameters were considered in a dimensionless way. It has been shown that the dimensionless opening diameter (D)/d1 is dependent on two dimensionless parameters Q = (d31fc/M0) and G = (fc/Y2), where d1 and fc are the outer diameter of the projectile and the compressive strength of the target, respectively.