Research on anti-penetration performance of composite armor of steel/composite materials

Abstract

The anti-penetration performance of the composite armor structures, which are composed of steel, Kevlar composite, and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composite, were investigated numerically. The effects of composite armor configurations, the thickness of back plates, the shapes and incident angles of projectile on the anti-penetration performance were analyzed. The results indicate that the configuration with steel, Kevlar and UHMWPE on the first, second and third layers of the composite armor have the better anti-penetration performance. As the thickness of the composites back plate increases, the specific energy absorption of the composite armor decreases while the anti-penetration performance of the composite armor increases. In addition, it can be also found that the ball-headed projectile has stronger penetration ability than the flat-headed projectile of the same weight, and the penetration ability of projectile decreases with the increase in the impact angle of projectile.

Keywords:

• Composite armor
• steel
• composites
• anti-penetration
• numerical simulation

Additional information

Funding

This reported research was supported by the Defense Industrial Technology Development Program (JCKY2018604B004), and the Opening Project of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Automobile Components and Vehicle Technology, Guangxi University of Science and Technology (No. 2020GKLACVTKF01).