An armour-piercing projectile penetration in a double-layered target of ultra-high-performance fiber reinforced concrete and armour steel: Experimental and numerical analyses

• The ballistic limit velocity for UHPFRC penetration is dependent on both the cylinder target thickness and radial scale.
• The short straight fiber reinforcement in this work plays no significant role on the impact resistance.
• With higher striking velocities, the residual velocities are less dependent on the UHPFRC radial scale.

In this paper, experimental and numerical investigations are conducted to study the dynamic response of a double-layered target of ultra-high-performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) and armour steel subjected to an armour-piercing projectile impact. Firstly, 9 shots of ogival/conical nose projectiles penetration test on three configurations of segmented UHPFRC target with armour steel are carried out. Based on the measured penetration depth in the backing target, the ballistic efficiency of the composite targets is then analyzed quantitatively via the Differential Efficiency Factor. The meso-scale Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM), which accounts for rate effect and tensile fracture, is used as the constitutive model to describe the UHPFRC material mechanical response. While the armour steel material is modeled by Johnson–Cook yield criterion with finite element method. The numerical results of both failure mode and residual penetration depth are presented and evaluated with the experimental results. Consequently, the importance of UHPFRC conditions such as fiber content, lateral constrain, lamination is addressed with respect to the validated penetration tests. Finally, the UHPFRC plate ballistic properties are analyzed through extensive perforation simulations.

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