Pre-stress effect on confined ceramic armor ballistic performance

A numerical technique for the simulation of pre-stressed confined ceramic targets under long rod projectile (LRP) impact, using explicit software, AUTODYN (R), is proposed. The proposed model is validated by comparing the ballistic performance results with the available experimental data in the literature. Impact simulations of the confined ceramic targets with different pre-stress conditions, namely radial, axial and hydrostatic, as well as without pre-stress for benchmarking are reported. The effects of these different pre-stress conditions on the ballistic performance of the ceramic target are explored. The upper limits of transition velocity for the targets of different pre-stress conditions are obtained. It is shown that dwell of the LRP on the ceramic interface is influenced by the pressure, obtained from pre-stressing, at the initial failure position in SiC target. It is shown that pressure at the initial failure position increases linearly with the upper limit of transition velocity. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.