Stacking Order Effect of Hybrid Bumper Against High-Velocity Impact

Abstract

A hybrid effect with a stiff ceramic plate and strong composite plate has been shown to increase the ballistic performance. However, previous studies have focused only on various hybrid configurations with only qualitative explanation. Such studies have not distinguished the effect of the stacking order from the effect of a projectile deformation such as a mushroom mechanism and inter-layer effect. The current study used a polymeric plate and bullet-proof fabric layer models to identify the stacking order effect of a hybrid panel. Impacts onto a relatively soft fabric layer and a polymeric plate hardly deform the projectile. The gap between the layer and plate can signify only the hybrid effect of the stacking order. Therefore, the hybrid effect when regarding only the stacking order can be analyzed by minimizing the deformation and fragmentation, as well as the inter-layer effect. By conducting numerical simulations in the range of a few hundred m/s impact velocity, it was found that the desirable stacking order can improve a kinetic energy absorption remarkably more than 50%.