Numerical study on anti-penetration performance of metal packaged ceramic structure

The anti-penetration performance of traditional layered ceramic composite structure is limited by the properties of the materials and the layered structure is difficult to resist the multi-hitting. Considering these two characteristics of the layered structure, the lightweight metal packaged ceramic composite structure is investigated to improve the anti-penetration performance by experiments and simulation. The finite element model was verified by ballistic range test, so it can well simulate the process of the penetrating and the result has high reliability. The metal packaged ceramic composite structure exhibits 50% higher anti-penetration performance than that of the equivalent titanium alloy plate and 20% higher than the layered ceramic composite structure. In metal packaged ceramic composite structure, the metal packaging interlayer can reduce the projectile energy by 55% and plays the most important role in the anti-penetration process. It is also found that the metal packaging increases the erosion of the projectile by confining the ceramic material and restricting the broken ceramic debris flying out. Thus, it can improve the anti-penetration performance of the composite structure. Moreover, metal packaging can also limit the propagation of cracks in the ceramics, thereby improving the ability of the composite structure to resist the multi-hitting. The metal packaged ceramic composite structure is less affected by the projectile penetration position.