Numerical Simulation of Projectile Impact on Mild Steel ArmourPlates using LS-DYNA: Part I: Validation

Abstract

The paper describes  the simulation of impact of jacketed projectiles on steel armour plates usingexplicit finite element analysis as implemented in LS-DYNA. Validation of numerical modelling includesa comprehensive mesh convergence study leading to insights not previously reported in literature,using shell, solid, and axisymmetric elements for representing target plates. It is shown for a numberof cases that with a proper choice of contact algorithm, element size, and strain rate-dependent materialproperties, computed projectile residual velocities can match closely with corresponding test-basedvalues. The modelling requirements are arrived at by correlating against published test residual velocities1for variants of mild steel plates (designated as MS1, MS2 and MS3) of different thicknesses at impactvelocities in the range of ~820-870 m/s. Using the validated numerical procedure, a number of parametricstudies such as the effect of projectile shape and geometric aspect ratios as well as plate thickness onresidual velocity have been carried out and presented in Part II of the current paper.