Effect of High Velocity Ballistic Impact on Pretensioned Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) Plates

This work describes an experimental investigation of the pretensioned thin plates made of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) struck by hemispherical and blunt projectiles at various impact velocities. The experiments were done using a gas gun with combination of pretension equipment positioned at the end of gun barrel near the nozzle. Measurements of the initial and residual velocities were taken, and the ballistic limit velocity were calculated for each procedures. The pretension target results in reduction of ballistic limit compared to non-pretension target for both flat and hemispherical projectiles. Target impacted by hemispherical projectile experience split at earlier impact velocity compared to target by flat projectile. C-Scan images analysis technique was used to show target impact damaged by hemispherical and flat projectiles. The damage area was shown biggest at ballistic limit velocity and target splitting occurred most for pretention plate.