Influence of Different Combinations of Explosively Welded Plates with the Same Areal Density on Their Antipenetration Performance.

In order to analyze the influence of different thickness distributions on the antipenetration performance of layered plates with a good surface-to-surface combination, five types of two-layer steel/aluminum and three-layer steel/aluminum/steel plates with the same areal density were manufactured by the method of explosive welding. Ballistic experiments and numerical simulation were performed to study the antipenetration performance of the plates impacted by a spherical steel projectile of diameter 8 mm. A 14.5-mm riffled gun was used to launch the projectile, and the numerical simulation were carried out by using the LS-DYNA 3D explicit finite-element code. Effects of the number of layers, their thickness distribution, and total thickness on the antipenetration performance of the layered plates were investigated. Results showed that the antipenetration performance of the multilayer plates was better than that of a monolithic plate with the same areal density - the ballistic limit speed of the two-layer and three-layer plates, on the average, increased by 9.6 and 19.9% compared with that of the monolithic one. In addition, the antipenetration performance of the three-layer plates was better than that of the two-layer ones if the thickness of the steel and aluminum plates was same. The influence of layer thickness distribution on the antipenetration performance was more pronounced for the two-layer plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]