Ballistic behavior of oblique ceramic composite structure against long-rod tungsten projectiles

Oblique ceramic armor structure composed of an oblique part and a backing part was designed to resist the ballistic impact of long rod penetrators. The front part consisted of an oblique silicon carbide ceramic and a triangular titanium alloy prism. The backing part contained layered silicon carbide and armor steel designed to absorb the residual energy of penetrators. The structure's response to penetration was examined experimentally by considering different impact locations on oblique targets. Numerical simulations of the experiments were performed to reproduce the penetration and failure processes that occurred in the armor modules. In addition, a simple layer structure with the identical line-of-sight thickness of each material used in the oblique impact was simulated under a normal impact. The rod and target performances with the oblique impact and normal impact were compared and analyzed in detail. The results showed that the oblique structure had a better ballistic performance as a result of an extra short dwell period before penetrating the ceramic in comparison with the normal layer case. The ability of the oblique targets to defeat long rod projectiles differed with the impact location on the ceramic. The present study paves the way for ceramic armor obliquity applications.