A study on the ballistic performance of single-layered and multi-layered structures impacted by spherical rigid projectile: experimental investigation and modelling

In the current study, an experimental investigation and modelling of the large plastic deformation of single-layered and multi-layered metallic targets made of either aluminum alloy or mild steel or a combination of these materials impacted by a rigid spherical projectile were presented. To conduct experiments, eight different layering configurations were considered under various impact velocities from 42 to 158 m/s. Also, the modeling of this process was employed by the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System using a multi-objective design of the genetic algorithm by dividing data into two parts, training and prediction sets. To improve the ability of the system, the genetic algorithm was used for the optimal design of Gaussian membership function parameters in the antecedent part, and the singular value decomposition method was employed for calculation of linear coefficient vectors in the consequent part. The procedure of optimal designing and modeling was performed by considering three membership functions for each of the three experimental inputs. The accuracy of proposed model was assessed by the coefficient of determination and root-mean-square error for training and prediction data sets.