Effect of design on the performance of steel–alumina bilayers and trilayers subject to ballistic impact

Abstract

a b s t r a c tComposite armors systems containing ceramic components are capable of offering greater ballistic protection than those of monolithic metals alone. The level of protection afforded by a composite armor depends sensitively on the materials utilized and their spatial configuration. Using numerical simulation, we investigate the effects of relevant design parameters on the ballistic performance of thin, unbonded ceramic-metal bilayers and trilayers subject to normal impact by steel spheres. The deformation behavior of the constituent phases is described by established constitutive laws. The predictive capability of the numerical model is validated through comparisons of simulation results with experimental measurements of displacement profiles of the back facesheet of a reference trilayer. The simulation results indicate that the ceramic-metal bilayer with the ceramic at the impact side offers the highest ballistic resistance; removing metal from the rear of the structure and placing it on the impact side (forming a trilayer) results in reduced ballistic resistance. Additionally, the onset of target penetration is found to correlate with high levels of energy dissipated within the target. The implication is that composite armors should be designed to maximize the energy dissipated in the projectile, not in the armor. Accordingly, effective designs at resisting failure are found to have high ceramic-to-metal mass ratios, with a finite (though small) amount of metal on the back face.

Confinement effects on compressive and ballistic performance of ceramics: a review

“…However, in practice, application of confinement inevitably increases the total mass of the armour system, which may be a conflict with the optimisation to achieve best performance at the minimum weight. Results from numerical simulations [126,160] indicated that the bilayer ceramic/metal armour outperformed the trilayer metal/ceramic/metal armour in term of ballistic resistance. Note that, in the simulations, the influence of cover plate on the ballistic performance might be underestimated since the ejecting of ceramic fragments was not effectively simulated.…”

Experimental tests and numerical modeling of ballistic impact on honeycomb sandwich structures reinforced by functionally graded plates

“…The specific energy absorption capability of the armor was able to increase by setting convenient interface parameters. Holland et al 14 investigated the ballistic performance of ceramic-metal bilayered (steelalumina) and trilayered (steel-alumina-steel) structures with equivalent areal density. The ceramic-metal bilayered structure exhibited the highest ballistic resistance with the lowest back face deflection.…”

Experimental and numerical study on the effect of aluminum foil wrapping on penetration resistance of ceramic tiles

“…Analytical studies have been conducted for identifying optimized structure of these armors which have maximum Ballistic Limit Velocity (BLV) [6][7][8][9][10]. Although analytic models are useful for analysis and optimization, to achieve precise results, numerical and experimental analyses are carried out in di erent aspects, such as optimization of adhesive layer thickness [11][12][13], thickness of the ceramic tile, and back plate [14][15][16][17][18]. Also, experimental studies on compactness of the ceramic tiles [19], their size [20], and using dual-phase back plates [21] are reported in the literature.…”