Designing and modeling new generation of advanced hybrid composite sandwich structure armors for ballistic threats in defense applications

Composite sandwich structures under ballistic impact loading can be a key point in the design for defense applications. This paper presents new armor designs consist of two composite plates with honeycomb core subjected to ballistic impact via 0.3-caliber Armor-Piercing projectile APM2. The numerical modeling of composite materials poses high challenges in simulating their anisotropic behavior under impact loading. Optimizing the failure criteria and examining the influence of changing the materials on ballistic response and energy absorption are considered. An enhanced composite constitutive model for composite plates and Johnson-Cook constitutive model for metallic honeycomb core are employed to permit the simulation of dynamic plastic deformations with the failure mechanisms during impact loading in LS-DYNA. A three-dimensional simulation is employed as highly efficient through the back-analysis of laboratory tests. The results of the numerical simulations are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. Numerical studies are performed to assess the effects of different composite materials and various aluminum alloys for honeycomb core with different impact velocities on the behavior of hybrid composite sandwich armor. The proposed armor design can introduce a significant influence on enhancing the new armors generations and achieving good sturdiness and lightweight armors for defense applications. Keywords: composite material; sandwich structure; ballistic impact armor; LS-DYNA; armor piercing; honeycomb