Numerical simulation of the ballistic protection performance of a laminated armor system with pre-existing debonding/delamination

The ballistic protection performance of laminated body armor may be significantly reduced through defects such as debonding/delamination. To understand the effect of a pre-existing defect on body armor performance, a two-dimensional finite element model was developed. The numerical study shows that the laminated armor system with a pre-existing debonding/delamination has poorer ballistic protection performance than that without any imperfection. Also, it was noted that the ballistic protection performance of the laminated armor system with a pre-existing debonding/delamination is sensitive to the changes in the parameters considered such as size, location and pattern of the pre-existing debonding/delamination.