An engineering model on penetration of eroding rods into ceramic/polymer composite

6 pages, 3 figures.-- Issue title: "EURODYMAT 2003 - 7th International Conference on Mechanical and Physical Behaviour of Materials under Dynamic Loading" (Porto, Portugal, Sep 8-10, 2003).A new material composed of a polymer matrix loaded with ceramic partiales, at low cost and of higher ballistic efficiency than that of the metallic materials used for armouring applications, is proposed as an alternative to the ceramic tiles traditionally adopted for mixed panels. An engineering model was developed to simulate normal impacts of projectiles against this particulate composite backed by a metallic plate. The equation governing the erosion of projectile and ceramic is that proposed by Tate and Alekseevskii, modifie to consider a moving target. For the volume of particulate composite between the projectile and the metallic plate, an equation was derived to include a momentum balance. For the metallic plate, an energy balance equation was used. When the projectile has eliminated the ceramic/polymer composite and meets the plate, the model of Awerbuch & Bodner is adopted, again modifie to consider a moving target. ln this way, the impact process is described by a set of non-linear differential equations, to be integrated in time. The model was validated with experimental results and with full numerical simulations and showed agreement with both of them.The authors are indebted to the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (Project 07N/0004/1998) for the financial support of this work.Publicad