Journal of Stress Analysis

Journal of Stress Analysis

Design and Development of a Protection System Combining a Perforated Plate and Lightweight Composite Armor against 12.7 mm Caliber Threats

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors
Faculty of Materials & Manufacturing Technologies, Malek-e Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
This study examines the ballistic behavior designed and developed to protect against lightweight composite armor for large-caliber 12.7 mm armor-piercing (AP) threats. To achieve this, a perforated steel plate combined with a base armor (SiC-Kevlar) is utilized. The efficient selection of materials and optimized design are key to attaining lightweight armor. Accordingly, the most suitable materials in the best geometric configuration are identified for each component of the system. Based on the selected material, a novel geometric design for the perforated plate’s holes was proposed, replacing the traditional cylindrical holes with conical ones. The proposed design simultaneously ensures greater potential for asymmetric impact and structural integrity of the armor structure, thereby improving its ballistic performance. Finite element simulations using LS-DYNA, along with the response surface method (RSM), were employed to optimize key parameters of the perforated plate, such as cone angle and air spacing. The results suggest that the proposed conically perforated plate design can be more effectively utilized than the cylindrical perforated plate for ballistic protection, regardless of whether the impact occurs at the center of the hole or at its edge.
Keywords

[1] P. Zhang, Z. Wang, P. Zhao, L. Zhang, X. C. Jin, and Y. Xu, “Experimental investigation on ballistic resistance of polyurea coated steel plates subjected to fragment impact,” Thin-Walled Struct., vol. 144, p. 106342, 2019.
[2] S. Balos, V. Grabulov, L. Sidjanin, M. Pantic, and I. Radisavljevic, “Geometry, mechanical properties and mounting of perforated plates for ballistic application,” Mater. Des., vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 2916–2924, 2010.
[3] M. Ubeyli, R. O. Y ¨ ıldırım, and B. Ogel, “On the ¨ comparison of the ballistic performance of steel and laminated composite armors,” Mater. Des., vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 1257–1262, 2007.
[4] S. Balos, D. Howard, A. Brezulianu, and D. Labus Zlatanovi´c, “Perforated Plate for Ballistic Protection—A Review,” Metals (Basel)., vol. 11, no. 4, p. 526, 2021.
[5] T. Cui, Q. Qin, W. Yan, T. Wang, and J. Zhang, “Ballistic Resistance of Novel Amorphous-AlloyReinforced Perforated Armor,” Acta Mech. Solida Sin., vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 12–26, 2021.
[6] S. Chocron, C. E. Anderson Jr, D. J. Grosch, and C. H. Popelar, “Impact of the 7.62-mm APM2 projectile against the edge of a metallic target ” Int. J. Impact Eng., vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 423–437, 2001.
[7] N. Kılı¸c, S. Bedir, A. Erdik, B. Ekici, A. Ta¸sdemirci, and M. G¨uden, “Ballistic behavior of high hardness perforated armor plates against 7.62 mm armor piercing projectile,” Mater. Des., vol. 63, pp. 427–438, 2014.
[8] I. Radisavljevic, S. Balos, M. Nikacevic, and L. Sidjanin, “Optimization of geometrical characteristics of perforated plates,” Mater. Des., vol. 49, pp. 81–89, 2013.
[9] A. Mubashar, E. Uddin, S. Anwar, N. Arif, S. Waheed Ul Haq, and M. A. K. Chowdhury, “Ballistic response of 12.7 mm armour piercing projectile against perforated armour developed from structural steel,” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part L J. Mater. Des. Appl., vol. 233, no. 10, pp. 1993–2005, 2019.
[10] W. Hao, P. Zhang, J. Xie, M. Hou, Z. Wang, and X. Bai, “Investigation of impact performance of perforated plates and effects of the perforation arrangement and shape on failure mode,” Eng. Fail. Anal., vol. 140, p. 106638, 2022.
[11] A. Shi, X. Hong, H. Han, K. Xia, X. Fan, C. Qin and S. Sun, “Research on ballistic protection characteristics of perforated plates made of different steel materials for 12.7 mm penetrator projectile,” J. of Physics: Conference Series, IOP Publishing, 2024, p. 12007.
[12] D. Acar, B. H. Canpolat, and O. N. Cora, “Bal- ¨ listic performances of Ramor 500, Armox Advance and Hardox 450 steels under monolithic, double-layered, and perforated conditions,” Eng. Sci. Technol. an Int. J., vol. 51, p. 101653, 2024.
[13] M. H. M. Alawsi, A. M. A. Al-Zobaede, and S. M. A. Al-Obaidi, “Experimental and Numerical Study of Ballistic Impact Performance on Steel Plate Structures,” J. Eng. Sustain. Dev., vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 177-183, 2025.
[14] N. Kılı¸c, B. Ekici, and S. Bedir, “Optimization of high hardness perforated steel armor plates using finite element and response surface methods,” Mech. Adv. Mater. Struct., vol. 24, no. 7, pp. 615-624, 2017.
[15] P. J. Hazell, Armour: materials, theory, and design. CRC press, 2022. [16] N. Djordjevic et al., “Modelling of shock waves in fcc and bcc metals using a combined continuum and dislocation kinetic approach,” Int. J. Plast., vol. 105, pp. 211-224, 2018.
[17] P. L. N. Fernando, D. Mohotti, and A. Remennikov, “Behaviour of explosively welded impedance-graded multi-metal composite plates under near-field blast loads,” Int. J. Mech. Sci., vol. 163, p. 105124, 2019.
[18] A. Kyner, K. Dharmasena, K. Williams, V. Deshpande, and H. N. G. Wadley, “High intensity impact of granular matter with edge-clamped ductile plates,” Int. J. Impact Eng., vol. 111, pp. 106-129, 2018.
[19] G. R. Johnson, “A constitutive model and data for metals subjected to large strains, high strain rates and high temperatures,” in Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Ballistics, The Hague, Netherlands, 1983, 1983.
[20] Y. K. Xiao, H. Wu, Q. Fang, W. Zhang, and X. Z. Kong, “Hemispherical nosed steel projectile highspeed penetration into aluminum target,” Mater. Des., vol. 133, pp. 237-254, 2017.
[21] J. Cao, J. Lai, J. Zhou, N. Kang, L. Du, and Y. Miao, “Experiments and simulations of the ballistic response of ceramic composite armors,” J. Mech. Sci. Technol., vol. 34, pp. 2783–2793, 2020.
[22] P. Hu, Y. Cheng, P. Zhang, J. Liu, H. Yang, and J. Chen, “A metal/UHMWPE/SiC multi-layered composite armor against ballistic impact of flatnosed projectile,” Ceram. Int., vol. 47, no. 16, pp. 22497–22513, 2021.
[23] W. Burian, J. Marcisz, L. Starczewski, and M. Wnuk, “A probabilistic model of optimising perforated high-strength steel sheet assemblies for impact-resistant armour systems,” Probl. Mechatroniki Uzbroj. lotnictwo, in˙zynieria bezpiecze´nstwa, vol. 8, 2017.