Impact of metallic projectiles on ceramic targets: transition between interface defeat and penetration

Armour systems capable of defeating an incoming projectile on the surface o f a ceramic have been reported by several authors. This capability, called interface defeat, signifies that the projectile material is forced to flow radially outwards on the surface of the ceramic without penetrating signifi cantly. In order to investigate the conditions for interface defeat, two mo dels for the interaction of a metallic projectile and a ceramic target were established. With the aid of them, upper and lower bounds for the transiti on impact velocity between interface defeat and normal penetration were est imated for a given combination of metallic projectile and ceramic target. T hese approximate bounds were found to be consistent with transition velocit ies determined experimentally for two projectile materials (tungsten and mo lybdenum) and five target materials (two types of silicon carbide, boron ca rbide, titanium diboride and a polycrystalline diamond composite). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.