Ballistic performance maps for thick metallic armour

This paper presents a concept for generating a certain type of Ballistic Pe rformance Map to assess the armour quality of metallic materials without re sorting to expensive and time-consuming experiments. The maps are essential ly based on a Ballistic Performance Index, developed by the authors in an e arlier work, which describes the performance of a typical metallic armour i n terms of the static mechanical properties of the material and the strikin g velocity of the projectile. The correlation is derived assuming an energy -balance approach and a two-stage penetration mechanism where the armour ex periences radial flow at the striking end and bulging at the rear. The maps provide iso-performance contours as a function of the yield strength and t he strain-hardening rate for a given striking velocity. To demonstrate the validity of the maps, those pertaining to steel, aluminium and titanium all oys are presented, along with experimental data. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.