TY - JOUR
T1 - Ballistic fracture quantification in ceramic-foam laminates by numerical manifold method
AU - Yue, Rui
AU - Gu, Yuansen
AU - Ning, Youjun
AU - Zhai, Xuezhen
AU - Shu, Liuchen
AU - Kang, Ge
AU - Guo, Baoqiao
AU - Chen, Pengwan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2026/5
Y1 - 2026/5
N2 - Ceramic laminated structures are widely used in protective armor systems owing to their outstanding combination of light weight and ballistic resistance. The dynamic fracture mechanisms of ceramic cores under high-velocity impact remain unclear, limiting structural optimization and performance improvement. The numerical manifold method (NMM) is extended with capabilities for multi-crack initiation and evolution, as well as fragment interactions under dynamic loading without predefined paths. A series of ballistic experiments were conducted on 100 mm multiply 100 mm multiply 34 mm alumina ceramic-aluminum foam laminates with ceramic cores of 6, 8, 10 and 12 mm, impacted by 12.7 mm armor-piercing incendiary projectiles at 440 m/s. Configurations 3 and 4 prevented penetration, whereas configurations 1, 2, and 5 were penetrated. The NMM analysis shows good agreement with experiments, predicting residual velocity for penetrated laminates with errors of 2%–12% and back-face deflection for non-penetrated laminates with errors of 6%–16%. Crack evolution, along with crack density and fragment-size distribution, was revealed by the NMM simulations and found consistent with the recovered ceramic cores from experiments. Further PDF analysis reveal that successful protection shows nearly twice the probability density of small-sized fragments compared with penetrated cases. The developed NMM framework offers reliable predictive capability for multi-crack evolution in ceramic laminates under dynamic loading, providing new insights and valuable guidance for armor design.
AB - Ceramic laminated structures are widely used in protective armor systems owing to their outstanding combination of light weight and ballistic resistance. The dynamic fracture mechanisms of ceramic cores under high-velocity impact remain unclear, limiting structural optimization and performance improvement. The numerical manifold method (NMM) is extended with capabilities for multi-crack initiation and evolution, as well as fragment interactions under dynamic loading without predefined paths. A series of ballistic experiments were conducted on 100 mm multiply 100 mm multiply 34 mm alumina ceramic-aluminum foam laminates with ceramic cores of 6, 8, 10 and 12 mm, impacted by 12.7 mm armor-piercing incendiary projectiles at 440 m/s. Configurations 3 and 4 prevented penetration, whereas configurations 1, 2, and 5 were penetrated. The NMM analysis shows good agreement with experiments, predicting residual velocity for penetrated laminates with errors of 2%–12% and back-face deflection for non-penetrated laminates with errors of 6%–16%. Crack evolution, along with crack density and fragment-size distribution, was revealed by the NMM simulations and found consistent with the recovered ceramic cores from experiments. Further PDF analysis reveal that successful protection shows nearly twice the probability density of small-sized fragments compared with penetrated cases. The developed NMM framework offers reliable predictive capability for multi-crack evolution in ceramic laminates under dynamic loading, providing new insights and valuable guidance for armor design.
KW - Ballistic performance
KW - Dynamic fracture
KW - Fragmentation quantification
KW - Laminated structures
KW - Numerical manifold method
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105031595691
U2 - 10.1016/j.tws.2026.114742
DO - 10.1016/j.tws.2026.114742
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105031595691
SN - 0263-8231
VL - 224
JO - Thin-Walled Structures
JF - Thin-Walled Structures
M1 - 114742
ER -