Fundamental Investigation of High-Velocity Impact of Ductile Projectiles on Confined Ceramic Targets

Authors: B. Leavy; C. Krauthauser; J. Houskamp; J. LaSalvia; ARMY RESEARCH LAB ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND MD

Abstract:

To aid the Army's transformation into a more mobile, rapidly deployable, and highly survivable force, researchers at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) have undertaken a program aimed at supporting the development of lighter weight ceramic armors with greater protection capabilities. One goal of this program is to improve the capabilities of computational tools for the design and analysis of ceramic armors, which offer greatly enhanced protection capabilities at reduced weights. Given the multitude of design variables, the development of optimized ceramic armors is a resourceintensive process that relies on predictive simulations. The use of validated computational design tools in conjunction with ballistic experimentation and postmortem system characterization are keys to improving upon this process. This approach has not been widely adopted mainly because of justified concerns with the validity of computational tool predictions. The program at ARL will assess the capabilities of current computational tools by generating benchmark data on the time-dependent response of simplified ceramic armor targets and armor ceramics, and quantify ceramic damage responsible for these responses. The ability for current computational tools to match such data will identify model weaknesses and therefore expedite improvements. The experimental capability for determining the timedependent response of simplified ceramic armor targets and some recent results for an armor-grade silicon carbide are presented. In addition, preliminary efforts examining the validity of a computational tool based on Sandia National Lab's (SNL) GeoModel (Fossum and Brannon, 2004), and implemented into ALEGRA (Carroll et al., 2004) are reported.

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APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE