Effects of heat treatment on the ballistic properties of AA6070 aluminium alloy

The ballistic properties of the aluminium alloy AA6070 in different tempers are studied, using target plates of 20 mm thickness in tempers O (annealed), T4 (naturally aged), T6 (peak strength) and T7 (overaged). The stress–strain behaviour of the different tempers was characterised by quasi-static tension tests and was found to vary considerably with temper in regards to strength, strain hardening and ductility. Ballistic impact tests using 7.62 mm APM2 bullets were then carried out, and the ballistic limit velocities were obtained for all tempers. In the material tests it was shown that the O-temper was most ductile and almost no fragmentation took place during the ballistic impact tests. The T6-temper proved to be least ductile, and fragmentation was commonly seen. The experiments show that despite fragmentation, strength is a more important feature than ductility in ballistic impact for this alloy, at least for the given projectile and within the velocity range investigated. A thermoelastic–thermoviscoplastic constitutive relation and a ductile fracture criterion were determined for each temper, and finite element analyses were performed using the IMPETUS Afea Solver with fully integrated 3rd-order 64-node hexahedrons. The numerical simulations predicted the same variation in ballistic limit velocity with respect to temper condition as found in the experiments, but the results were consistently to the conservative side. In addition, analytical calculations using the cylindrical cavity expansion theory (CCET) were carried out. The ballistic limit velocities resulting from these calculations were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data. ► The ballistic properties of AA6070 in four different tempers have been studied. ► Based on the material tests, material models were identified for each temper. ► Ballistic tests show that material strength is more important than local ductility. ► FEM and CCET calculations are carried out and compared with experimental data. ► Aluminium alloys are found to have comparable perforation resistance to steels.