Modeling Ceramic Defeat Mechanisms and Variations in Ballistic Data

摘要

Bi-element or layered targets have been used to obtain depth-of-penetration (DOP)data so that performance of ceramic materials under ballistic impact can be evaluated. While the data have been particularly useful for ranking ceramics as possible armor candidates, interpretation of the data has been difficult and little insight into the dynamics and mechanisms of the penetration process has been obtained from such dat Prior analytical work into the penetration mechanics of ceramics by the authors included two important factors (i.e., a dynamic target interaction resulting from pressure wave reflection at the interface between target elements and a time dependent damage mechanism describing the response of the ceramic material). In the present work, a size effect, known to be associated with ceramic behavior, and the introduction of a third process zone have been included in the analysis to address a portion of the variations (scatter) in the DOP test data. The analysis now includes results of the weakest-link theory in terms of the Weibull distribution and measured parameters for AI2O3. Calculated results are compared with the original data and prior analysis to provide relationships between all three mechanisms and indicate the influence of the size effect on the data.