A numerical study on high-velocity impact behaviour of ceramic composite laminates

Abstract

Currently, silicon carbide (SiC) is of enormous concern because of its high compressive strength,high thermal conductivity, high thermal shock resistance and small coefficient of thermal expansion. SiC has its applicability in armored vehicles, hypersonic armaments, and bullet-resistant armours in the future. The current focus is on understanding the behavior of SiC as used in laminated ceramic armours during the ballistic impact for its profound use in armoured vehicles. To achieve these objectives, computational simulations have been performed for the aforementioned materials using ANSYS/AUTODYN. It was concluded that when SiC was used as a front layer in laminated armours, it significantly increased the strength of the material against the hitting projectiles. The aforementioned composite material was even successful against the sniper gun projectile. The optimized thickness for the given configuration was found to be 41 mm with the consideration of approximately 50% depth of penetration. The modeled configuration was found to be approximately nine times stronger than the conventional laminated armours. The current study was compared with the previous experimental studies and the results were in good agreement. This agreement solely pertains to the pattern observed and not to individual values. It indicated the difference in % age DOP for the present research and previous studies with the increasing thickness of laminated armour. The trend observed was nearly similar to previous experimental studies. This showed that the DOP was reduced, as the thickness increased. Moreover, the previous studies showed that only ALON (aluminium-oxynitride) and sapphire had the required strength to act as a hard front-faced layer in laminated glass, but the current study improvised it to a Silicon carbide hard front-faced layer also.