Experimental study on the effect of ceramic properties on failure behavior of composite armor

Abstract Several commonly used ceramics in ballistic protection were compared in terms of ballistic resistance and failure behavior, including alumina (Al ₂ O ₃ ), silicon carbide (SiC), boron carbide (B ₄ C), and silicon nitride (Si ₃ N ₄ ). Hybrid ceramic ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene composite armors were impacted by 12.7 mm armor‐piercing incendiary projectiles, with a velocity of around 490 m/s. Moreover, there was a layer of aramid fabric composite covering on the impacted side of the ceramic plate. These composite armors were paneled with four different types of ceramics as faceplates and had the same sizes. The ballistic test results show that B ₄ C ceramic provides the worst protection performance, and SiC provides the best protection performance. The angles of ceramic cones formed by different ceramic plates under the same impact load are different, SiC is the widest and Al ₂ O ₃ is the narrowest. Numerical simulation shows that several ceramic composite targets have the same resistance to the projectile at the pit stage. The fragment mass was quantified by using the screening method, and the results show that the Schumann distribution is more consistent with the experimental results.