Author(s)

JIAQI DAI, SUWEN CHEN

Abstract

The bi-layer armour composed of a front ceramic plate and a metal backplate is a typical composite protective structure. The ceramic serves to erode the projectile. Ceramics are sensitive to multi-axial stress states. To investigate the anti-penetration performance under confining pressure, a verified SPH– FEM numerical simulation model was established. The penetration experiments under higher confining pressures were conducted. Two parameters, the maximum biaxial confining pressure and the confining pressure ratio, were introduced to evaluate the prestress state of the ceramic. Finally, based on experimental and simulation results, a ballistic limit velocity calculation method and a fast computation formula considering the confining pressure were proposed. The validity of the proposed formula was verified through comparison of results from physical experiments and numerical simulations. This research provided significant insights for further research on the anti-penetration performance of ceramic/metal composite armour.

Keywords

ballistic performance, ceramic composite armour, ballistic limit velocity, energy dissipation