Quasi-brittle fracture during structural impact of AA7075-T651 aluminium plates

The stress-strain behaviour of the aluminium alloy 7075 in T651 temper is characterized by tension and compression tests. The material was delivered as rolled plates of thickness 20 mm. Quasi-static tension tests are carried out in three in-plane directions to characterize the plastic anisotropy of the material, while the quasi-static compression tests are done in the through-thickness direction. Dynamic tensile tests are performed in a split Hopkinson tension bar to evaluate the strain-rate sensitivity of the material. Notched tensile tests are conducted to study the influence of stress triaxiality on the ductility of the material. Based on the material tests, a thermoelastic-thermoviscoplastic constitutive model and a ductile fracture criterion are determined for AA7075-T651. Plate impact tests using 20 mm diameter, 197 g mass hardened steel projectiles with blunt and ogival nose shapes are carried out in a compressed gas-gun to reveal the alloy's resistance to ballistic impact, and both the ballistic limit velocities and the initial versus residual velocity curves are obtained. It is found that the alloy is rather brittle during impact, and severe fragmentation and delamination of the target in the impact zone are detected. All impact tests are analysed using the explicit solver of the non-linear finite element code LS-DYNA. Simulations are run with both axisymmetric and solid elements. The failure modes are seen to be reasonably well captured in the simulations, while some deviations occur between the numerical and experimental ballistic limit velocities. The latter is ascribed to the observed fragmentation and delamination of the target which are difficult to model accurately in the finite element simulations. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.