Flexible Modular Armour for Protection Against the 5.56 × 45 mm SS109 Projectiles

The paper presents the results of the depth of penetration tests (DOP) and numerical simulations of the 5.56 × 45 mm SS109 projectile impact onto passive, layered armours placed on the armour backing material. Investigated passive layered armours (with dimensions 100 × 100 mm) were composed of polyester cover; soft ballistic aramid textile layers and Al₂O₃ ceramic tile placed inside rubberized aramid bag. The 5.56 × 45 mm SS109 projectile was stopped for 7-mm thick ceramic tile. In the final armour modular interlayer will be used and each module will have common area near its edges with neighbouring modules. Considering that for 7-mm thick ceramic tile, the areal density of armour equals 42.1 kg/m² . To decrease the areal density of the modular armour to the value of 20÷30 kg/m² the numerical simulations with the use of the Ansys Autodyn v15 program were performed as the base for further DOP tests. One and two-layer armours with two kinds of ceramic tiles (Al₂O₃, SiC), armour steel plate (Armox 500) and titanium plate (Ti₆Al₄V) were investigated. The results of numerical simulation for the most effective armour for protection against the 5.56 × 45 mm SS109 projectile were presented