Numerical study on influence of target thickness on impact response of GFRP composites

Abstract

Due to rise in threats like ballistic impacts, blast loading and vehicle collision in armored military vehicles, the demand for materials with high strength and enhanced energy absorption capacity has been increased. Applications of Fiber reinforced composites as armor material in military vehicles is being considered as one of the measures to reduce such threats. The focus of this work is to investigate the energy absorption capacity of a GFRP plates subjected to a rigid projectile with blunt-nosed at the intermediate velocity range by using non-linear finite element code LS-DYNA. It has been found that the numerically computed results of ballistic limit velocity and residual velocity, closely resemble the test results reported in the literature. With altering target thickness, it has also been explored how the energy absorption capacity, projectile's residual velocity, ballistic velocity limit and damage mechanism of composite. The numerical results make it evident that the target thicknesses have a significant impact on the target's ballistic resistance and delamination area.