Progress in Computational Models for Damage from Shear Bands and Voids

Computational solid mechanics (CSM) for ballistics, as it exists today, does not have predictive capabilities that are comparable to those of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The most important reason for this is the lack of high quality physical models for the damage and failure processes that occur during high‐speed impact. An approach for modeling impact damage in metals, based on physical modeling of adiabatic shear bands and voids, will be presented. Scaling laws for damage from shear bands have been developed over the past decade from detailed analysis of the thermomechanical processes, and are being adapted for efficient use in large‐scale computations. A similar approach for ductile void growth and spall has also been initiated. This approach is expected to lead to models that are based on the essence of the physics, rather than on fitting of phenomenological models to large databases.