Laterally pre-compressed SiC tiles against long rod impact

A combined experimental and computational study was carried out to investigate ballistic performance of laterally preload compressed SiC tile against long rod impact. A 100 × 100 b y 20 mm thick SiC tile was pushed into a 5 mm thick steel frame at high temperature of 430 °C so that after cool down to room temperature, the lateral preload compressive stress was developed in the SiC tiles. Depth of penetration tests of the SiC tiles with and without pre-stress were performed, where tungsten alloy long rods at a nominal velocity of 1240 m/s were launched to hit the SiC tiles backed by the steel blocks. Compared with the SiC tiles without any pre-stress, the pre-compressed SiC tiles were found to reduce significantly the residual penetration in the backing block. Simulations were carried out using the LS-dyna hydrocode, taking account of preload stress. The simulations showed that the lateral preload compression strengthened the intact SiC tiles and dwell occurred in the early penetration stage, eroding the striking long rod efficiently.