A STUDY ON BALLISTIC BEHAVIOR OF UHMWPE-FIBRE REINFORCED COMPOSITE ARMOR AGAINST DEFORMABLE PROJECTILES

UHMWPE-fiber reinforced composites (UFRC) are exceptionally lightweight and are generally used to defeat 7.62 mm projectiles under high-velocity impact. The UFRC, upon impact, undergo shear failure, in-plane tensile failure and deformation, and out-of-plane delamination. However, the damage and failure of URFC depends upon projectile cores. In this study, two projectiles, 7.62×39 mm Mild Steel Core (MSC) and 7.62×51 mm Lead (Pb) were used to conduct multiple high-velocity impact tests on similar UFRC composite plates. The states of projectiles after tests were studied along with states of UFRC plates. It was noticed MSC projectiles were plastically deformed and Pb projectiles were completely eroded away during the impact event. The out-of-plane deformation, called as Backface Signature (BFS), was also considerably different for different projectiles. The BFS was considerably less in case of 7.62 mm MSC projectile than in case of 7.62 mm Pb projectile. A sub-laminate based numerical model of UFRC was developed to understand high-velocity impact from both projectiles. The model was able to capture plastic deformation of MSC projectiles as well as UFRC’s failure and delamination. The model was also calibrated to show complete erosion of Pb projectile during high-velocity impact event.