The influence of metal cover plates on ballistic performance of silicon carbide subjected to large-scale tungsten projectile

Confined silicon carbide (SiC) plates covered with aluminium alloy, mild steel, and copper alloy materials of different elastic impedances were subjected to normal impact by blunt tungsten-heavy-alloy projectile of 16 mm diameter and 40 mm length, at a nominal striking velocity of 1.25 km/s. Failure analysis of the armour modules and penetration weight calculated by the measured residual penetration were applied to characterize ballistic performance of the ceramic armour modules. A simulation calculation was employed to investigate the inner impact process and the results corresponded well with the experimental ones. The damage initiation and propagation in ceramic, and the stress field distribution in the projectile were presented and analysed. The results showed that the cover plate can effectively reduce the damage of the target due to the extension of a dwell period compared with a ‘no cover’ structure. Low- elastic impedance material covers promote the impact stress distribution in ceramic leading to great improvement in ceramic ballistic performance. Moreover, the effect of cover material properties and energy dissipation at different impact periods was discussed.