Investigation On The Ballistic Resistance Property Of Aluminum Alloy Target Against Rod Projectiles Impact

With the development of the mobility and flexibility of tanks and armored vehicles in modern local war, reducing the armor weight has become a research focus in terms of armored material. Due to high strength-to-density ratio, aluminum alloy has become a potential light armored material. In this study, the methods of lab-scale ballistic test and finite element simulation are adopted to examine the ballistic resistance property of aluminum alloy targets of two kinds of different strength. The present study is of significance to the domestic aluminum alloy application in the ballistic field.Ballistic tests were conducted in the light gas gun test facility. During the tests, aluminum alloy targets of two kinds of different strength were impacted by rod projectiles. The initial velocity versus residual velocity was plotted and the ballistic limit velocity of each configuration was obtained. Detailed analysis of the failure modes and characters of the targets is carried out. Experimental results for the hard targets showed that the damage forms of the targets impacted by blunt and ogival projectiles are similar, i.e., perforation on the frontal side, peeling off into almost conical cavities on the rear side. Structure deformation was not obviously observed on the post-test targets. This indicates that the hard targets possess some brittleness to some degree. The ballistic resistance capacity of the hard aluminum alloy targets against ogival projectile impact is superior to that against blunt projectiles in the test involved velocity range. In the tests of soft targets impacted by blunt projectiles, plugging and obvious structure deformation were found.2D finite element simulations were conducted by using ABAQUS/EXPLICIT. Compared with the experiment results, the validation of numerical simulation has been proved. A preliminary analysis of the damage and failure mechanisms to the post-test target is carried out by extracting the typical element information in the damage area of targets. Shear failure occurs when the hard targets are perforated by the blunt projectiles. Meanwhile, tensile-shear, compression-shear or pure tensile failure occurs for the penetration by the ogival projectiles. Tensile failure is the major failure modes when the soft targets are perforated by the blunt projectiles. Furthermore simulations on the ballistic resistance of the two different strength targets with the same thickness were conducted. Results show that increasing the target strength is not always the optimum choice in terms of strengthening the defensive capabilities for aluminum alloy. This phenomenon should be noticed in armor material selection.