Experimental and numerical analysis of the response of aluminium oxide tiles to impact loading

Abstract Ceramics have long been recognised for their outstanding hardness and yield stress under compressive loading. There has been seen an increasing practice of ceramic components being used for impact resistance to foreign objects. However, their brittleness prevents their being used alone for such purposes and special considerations are required to optimise their advantages whilst avoiding their weakness. This paper presents some results from a recent programme on the dynamic response of aluminium oxide tiles to high speed impact, and reports the results of both the experimental and numerical investigation on alumina tiles backed by aluminium plates. Some observations on ceramic failure mechanisms and erosion on the projectile are discussed. Based on the test results, an empirical equation is developed for the energy-absorption characteristics of this two-component composite structure. A two-dimensional axisymmetric numerical analysis of normal impact is performed also. The finite-element package used was DYNA2D hydrodynamic code, and a brittle-fracture material model was used with an erosion condition when the ruptured material limits its role in the penetration process to purely inelastic effects. A detailed picture of the response of the ceramic under projectile impact has been obtained. The results are compared with experimental observations, reasonable agreement being encountered, thus suggesting that the present is an adequate numerical approach to the physical situation.