Studying the behavior of ceramic armors impacted by a 7.62-mm APM2 projectile

In this paper, the behavior of multi-layered ceramic armor and ceramic armor with ductile backing against armor piercing APM2 projectile has been considered numerically. Multi-layered armors in accordance with BR7 ballistic protection class should protect against AP 7.62-mm projectiles with impact velocity of 830m/s. Results show that unlike high strength steel, ceramic resists against initial penetration of brass jacket and lead filler and erodes them at initial stages. This enables higher resistance in ceramic armor with similar mass in comparison with the steel one. It is illustrated that ceramic armor with ductile backing beside above characteristics has the capability of bullet jacket strip and capturing brass jacket while the core penetrates through the armor. This characteristic is not observed in multi-layered ceramic armor without the backing plate. Ceramic armor with backing plate reduces projectile's exit velocity one ninth the residual velocity of multi-layered ceramic armor and one nineteenth the residual velocity of high strength steel armor with similar mass. Another point discussed in this paper is the effective ceramic mass resisting against the projectile. The more mass involved, the more ballistic resistance gained.