Ballistic response of additively manufactured AA6061/AA7075 multistack plate for armor-piercing projectile

Abstract

The current ballistics research study focuses heavily on substituting heavy metals with lightweight materials to make mobility more accessible and effective for all armor applications. To do so, the researchers found that aluminum alloys are the better alternative to substitute steel armor due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. Therefore, this research conducted ballistic studies on aluminum alloys using the Finite Element Analysis (FEM) methodologies and associated mathematical analysis. This Research primarily focuses on the damage factor, ballistic limit, and residual velocity of the bullet following penetration of target plates. In this investigation, the Johnson-Cook fracture and Recht-Ipson models were implemented on materials AA6061-T6 and AA7075-T6. The main objective of these models is to establish the damage factor and verify whether it is less than unity; if the factor is less than unity, it is eligible to study the residual velocity of the bullet after penetration into the target armor plate. The target plate was impacted with a 7.62 mm armor-piercing projectile with an impact velocity of 500 m/s. Monolithic plates of 18 mm thickness were evaluated initially. After that, the multilayered stack of each 3 mm thick plate was analyzed, and studied the effectiveness of using a multilayered stack armor plate.