Ballistic Performance of a Transparent Inter-Layered Specimen by a Long-Rod Impact

Abstract

Ballistic performance has been studied by impacting a long rod projectile into a bulk glass material and a layered specimen. The shock wave interaction on the material boundaries showed that it greatly influences the fracture configuration of glass material. A high speed photographic technique was applied in the experiment to observe the shock wave interaction and damage evolution in the bulk material. Transparent BK7 glass was used as the main material to observe the dynamic fracture phenomena. The depth of penetration (DOP) was measured to assess the ballistic efficiency of the bulk specimen compared with specimens that consisted of selected inter-layer materials, specifically rubber and a steel plate. The obtained results show that the use of a lower impedance material as an inter-layer is effective to enhance the ballistic performance while reducing the shock amplitude and delaying the wave propagation. These findings are in good agreement with the results of a numerical analysis using AUTODYN.