Pre-stress effect on confined ceramic armor ballistic performance

•Numerical modeling of pre-stressed confined SiC is performed and validated against the experimental measurements.•Effect of different pre-stress types on ballistic behavior of armor is explored.•Effect of “pressure at initial failure point” on ballistic behavior of SiC is studied.•Dwell–penetration transition velocity for different pre-stressed SiC targets is found.

A numerical technique for the simulation of pre-stressed confined ceramic targets under long rod projectile (LRP) impact, using explicit software, AUTODYN®, is proposed. The proposed model is validated by comparing the ballistic performance results with the available experimental data in the literature. Impact simulations of the confined ceramic targets with different pre-stress conditions, namely radial, axial and hydrostatic, as well as without pre-stress for benchmarking are reported. The effects of these different pre-stress conditions on the ballistic performance of the ceramic target are explored. The upper limits of transition velocity for the targets of different pre-stress conditions are obtained. It is shown that dwell of the LRP on the ceramic interface is influenced by the pressure, obtained from pre-stressing, at the initial failure position in SiC target. It is shown that pressure at the initial failure position increases linearly with the upper limit of transition velocity.