Abstract
The penetration ability of a 5.8 mm standard projectile can be improved by inserting a ZrO2 ceramic ball with high hardness, high temperature, and pressure resistance at its head. Thereby, a ceramic composite projectile can be formed. A depth of penetration (DOP) experiment and numerical simulation were conducted under the same condition to study the armor-piercing effectiveness of a standard projectile and ceramic composite projectile on 10 mm Rolled Homogeneous Armor (RHA) and ceramic/Kevlar composite armor, respectively. The results show that both the ceramic composite and standard projectiles penetrated the armor steel target at the same velocity (850 m/s). The perforated areas of the former (φ5 mm & φ2 mm) were 2.32 and 2.16 times larger, respectively, than those of the latter. The residual core masses of these two projectiles (φ5 mm & φ2 mm) were enhanced by 30.45% and 22.23%. Both projectiles penetrated the ceramic/Kevlar composite armor at the same velocity (750 m/s). Compared with the standard projectile, the residual core masses of the ceramic composite one (Ø5 mm & Ø2 mm) were enhanced by 12.4% and 3.6%, respectively. This paper also analyzes the penetration mechanism of the ceramic composite projectile on target plates by calculating its impact pressure. The results show that the ceramic composite projectile outperformed the standard projectile in penetration tests. The research results are instructive in promoting the application of the ZrO2 ceramic composite in an armor-piercing projectile design.
Highlights
In modern wars, ceramic material has been primarily used in armor design owing to its outstanding performance under moderate and high-speed shock
By comparing the accelerated velocity-time curve, it can be seen that acceleration of the ceramic composite projectile (Ø5 mm) core is lower than that of the standard one during the penetration, which indicates that the load of the former during the penetration is lower
By comparing the apertures of two varied projectiles, we found that the ceramic composite projectile projectile is larger than the standard projectile in terms of hole entrance, hole composite larger than the standard projectile terms hole entrance, hole composite projectile is is larger than the standard projectile inin terms ofof hole entrance, hole exit, and and maximum hole diameter
Summary
Ceramic material has been primarily used in armor design owing to its outstanding performance under moderate and high-speed shock. When using tungsten alloy material as the core material to penetrate the ceramic target plate, it produces high stress due to the collision at the moment of contacting the target plate, resulting in core head deformation and the thickening of the warhead These increase the resistance of penetration, affecting the final damage effect. Based on numerical simulation, Nechitailo [4,5] adopted pre-stress to prevent the ceramic projectile from breaking during the penetration process They designed a penetration experiment where concrete targets were penetrated by steel projectiles of the same diameter, mass, and length with diamonds of different masses inserted on their points. This study applied a high-hardness ZrO2 ceramic to 5.8 mm standard projectiles to examine its penetration mechanism with respect to Rolled Homogeneous Armor (RHA) and ceramic/Kevlar composite armor through a DOP experiment
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