Experimental and numerical studies on the behavior of thin aluminum plates subjected to impact by blunt- and hemispherical-nosed projectiles

Experiments were conducted on aluminum plates of 1 mm thickness by using a gas gun and projectiles with blunt and hemispherical noses. Target plate was impacted with varying impact velocity. Impact and residual velocities of the projectile were measured. Ballistic limit velocity was found to be higher for hemispherical projectiles than that for blunt projectiles. Effect of nose shape on the deformation of the plate was also studied. Numerical simulations of the impact were conducted by using an explicit finite element code (ABAQUS). Johnson-Cook elasto-viscoplastic model available in the code was used to carryout the analysis. Material property tests were carried out with the help of smooth and notched tensile test specimens. Results obtained from finite element simulations were compared with those of experiments. Good correlation was found between the two. It was observed that the element size significantly affects the numerical results: therefore a sufficiently refined mesh was used. Adaptive meshing was found helpful especially in the case of impact by a hemispherical projectile. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.