Effects of nanoclay on the ballistic behavior of GLARE - Experimental and numerical investigation

This paper investigated experimentally and numerically the effect of nanoclay on ballistic impact behavior of GLARE. The prepared GlARE is made of two Aluminum 2024 facing sheets and E glass/ epoxy/nanoclay as nano composite core. Nano composite section has been composed of undirectional E glass 409 g/m2، resin CY 219، hardner HY 5161 and nanoclay closite 30B dispersed into the epoxy system in a 0%، 4%، 7% and 10% ratio in weight with respect to the matrix. All panels fabricated using laid-up method in fiber weight fraction of 60%. Ballistic tests were conducted using Gas gun at the velocity of 205 and 225 m/s. The results of the ballistic impact experiments show that the amount of Specific energy absorption variations in 4% of nanoclay content is insignificant. However، in nanoclay contents of 7% and 10%، the Specific energy absorption increases. In other words، it be concluded that nanoclay has positive effect on higher percentage on the ballistic impact. The 3D finite element (FE) code، LS-DYNA، is used to model and validate the experimentally obtained results. A noticeable correlation was found between experimental and numerical results.