Title: Penetration resistance of ceramic with aluminium alloy/UHMWPE backplate

Authors: Zhangxia Guo; Limao Wang; Zihao Huang; Chen Wan; Zeng Xie; Zekun Yuan; Taiyang Li

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China ' School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China ' Key Laboratory of Transient Impact Technology, No. 208 Research Institute of China Ordnance Industries, Beijing, 102202, China ' School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China ' College of Traffic and Transportation, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, 400074, China ' School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China ' School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China

Abstract: At present, in the field of single-soldier protection panels, a large number of studies have been carried out on the performance of composite protective materials with different fibres and the results show that the main damage models are interlaminar delamination, fibre fracture and matrix cracking. Therefore, we proposed to add metal to the backplate to improve the ballistic impact behaviour of composite materials and conducted a series studies about the ballistic impact performance of different aluminium (Al) alloy/ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) ceramic composite materials through numerical simulation and ballistic tests. The results show that when the thickness of Al alloy in the composite backplate was 1 mm, the penetration resistance of ceramic composite materials could be effectively improved, and the Al alloy interlayer could effectively improve the resistance and erosion of ceramic panels to projectiles also. This study has important theoretical and reference significance for improving the ballistic impact damage tolerances of hybrid composite materials.

Keywords: UHMWPE; ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene; aluminium alloy; ballistic penetration; finite element simulation; single-soldier protection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVSMT.2025.147905

International Journal of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing, 2025 Vol.19 No.3, pp.243 - 261

Received: 25 Dec 2024
Accepted: 19 Feb 2025
Published online: 07 Aug 2025 *

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