Numerical-Experimental Evaluation of the Armour Protection Capabilities

This paper presents a numerical and experimental study of a composite add-on armour panel used for protection of lightweight armoured vehicles impacted by the 7.62 mm API (Armour Piercing Incendiary) BZ projectile (2nd level of International Agreement STANAG 4569). The composite armour consists of a number of ceramic tiles supported by one layer of aramid fabric placed inside an aluminium casing. The problem of the impact of the projectile onto the composite armour has been solved in three-dimension space (3D) with the use of CAD and CAE methods implemented in Ansys Autodyn v15 software. On the basis of the results of computer simulations, the proportions of the thickness of the armour layers were chosen. After that, the real model of the composite armour was built and tested in the firing range. The results obtained in the simulations were compared with the depth of penetration (DP) tests results, and satisfying agreement was obtained