A simulation approach for quantifying ballistic impact damage in ultra-high-performance concrete

•We quantify the damage of UHPC resulting from projectile impact.•For this purpose, a simulation model is derived from experimental results.•These results consist of residual velocities, observed target damage, and plate impact test data.•The model is capable of reproducing a broad range of test data with reasonable accuracy.•A methodology is introduced to obtain damage quantities from simulation results. In this work, we provide a hydrocode simulation model for high-velocity projectile impact against ultra-high-performance concrete targets and establish a methodology to extract damage quantities from the simulation results. In the parameter derivation process, published and own data stemming from material experiments, such as uniaxial, triaxial, and planar plate impact tests, are used as a starting point. To fill the systematic gaps of strength data for pressures of 1 GPa to 5 GPa and for fractured concretes, residual velocities of projectiles and qualitative target damage information from ballistic experiments with high-hard steel spheres are additionally used as a reference in parametric simulations. All criteria from the comparatively broad data basis are successfully reproduced by the simulation model simultaneously. The simulated damage quantities derived by the proposed extraction procedure are reasonable counterparts to the corresponding experimental measures from earlier published works, allowing a new quality of comparison between both worlds.