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Experiments and simulations of the ballistic response of ceramic composite armors

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Abstract

A lightweight multilayer ceramic composite armor with a sandwich structure back plate was proposed by studying the penetration process, damage mechanism, and the function of each layer of the composite armor against the 12.7 mm armor-piercing projectile. The effectiveness of the simulation was verified by comparing the experimental and simulation data. The effects of crack initiation in the ceramics, abrasion of ceramics, and size of ceramic cones on the penetration resistance of targets were discussed. The structural configuration of backplate sequence and thickness ratio was optimized through finite element simulation on ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Results indicate that boundary constraints have a significant effect on the antipenetration performance of ceramics. The antipenetration performance is the best when the structure of restrained composite armor is Al6061/Al2O3/TC4/Kevlar®/TC4 and the thickness ratio of the TC4 transition and back plates is 4:3.

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Abbreviations

V o :

Initial velocity

V r :

Residual velocity

A :

Thickness ratio

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51678308 and 51278249).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Jinfeng Cao, Jianzhong Lai, Jiehang Zhou, Ningyu Kang, Longyu Du & Yiqiu Miao

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  1. Jinfeng Cao
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  2. Jianzhong Lai
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  3. Jiehang Zhou
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  4. Ningyu Kang
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  5. Longyu Du
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Correspondence to Jianzhong Lai.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor Chongdu Cho

Jianzhong Lai serves as a Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China. He received his Ph.D. from Southeast University. His research interests include advanced composite and 3D printing materials.

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Cao, J., Lai, J., Zhou, J. et al. Experiments and simulations of the ballistic response of ceramic composite armors. J Mech Sci Technol 34, 2783–2793 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0611-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-020-0611-8

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