Cementitious material models for simulating projectile impact effects

Digital simulation of structural components of brittle cementitious materials like concrete subjected to blast and/or high-velocity impact are problems of high complexity. In the current asymmetric war environment around the globe, there is significant interest to study the performance of concrete panels as armor material in resisting the ballistic impact of projectiles of different types and impact velocities. Extensive experimental solution to the problem is not realistic, because it can be very expensive and highly time consuming. To be able to predict the behavior corresponding to the myriads of possibilities, reliable numerical simulations by a discrete numerical method is the sensible alternative. Different material models have been used over the past two decades to realistically simulate the behavior of concrete under dynamic, highly localized, high-velocity impact conditions. The present study gives an overview of the mechanics of such effects, identify the most popular material models that have been tried recently to properly predict the behavior through finite element simulations, present an improved model for superior prediction of response, and validate the proposed model using example problems for which experimental results are generated by way of actual impact tests.