Study of the Ballistic Impact Behavior of Protective Multi-Layer Composite Armor

The abalone shell, a composite material whose cross-section is composed of inorganic and organic layers, has high strength and toughness. Inspired by the abalone shell, several multi-layer composite plates with different layer sequences and thicknesses are studied as bullet-proof material in this paper. To investigate the ballistic performance of this multi-layer structure, the complete characterization model and related material parameters of large deformation, failure and fracture of Al2O3 ceramics and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) are studied. Then, 3D finite element models of the proposed composite plates with different layer sequences and thicknesses impacted by a 12.7 mm armor-piercing incendiary (API) are built using Abaqus to predict failure. The simulation results show that the CFRP/Al2O3 ceramic/Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE)/CFRP (1 mm/4 mm/4 mm/1 mm) composite is the optimized stack of layers. The simulation results under specified layer sequence and thickness have a reasonable correlation with the experimental results and reflect the failure and fracture of the multi-layer composite protective armor.