On the influence of fracture criterion on perforation of high-strength steel plates subjected to armour piercing projectile

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical investigation of fracture criterion influence on perforation of high-strength 30PM steel plates subjected to 7.62x51 mm Armour Piercing (AP) projectile. An evaluation of four ductile fracture models is performed to identify the most suitable fracture criterion. Included in the paper is the Modified Johnson-Cook (MJC) constitutive model coupled separately with one of these fracture criteria: the MJC fracture model, the Cockcroft-Latham (CL), the maximum shear stress and the constant failure strain models. A 3D explicit Lagrangian algorithm that includes both elements and particles, is used in this study to automatically convert distorted elements into meshless particles during the course of the computation. Numerical simulations are examined by comparing with the experimental results. The MJC fracture model formulated in the space of the stress triaxiality and the equivalent plastic strain to fracture were found capable of predicting the realistic fracture patterns and at the same time the correct projectile residual velocities. However, this study has shown that CL one parameter fracture criterion where only one simple material test is required for calibration is found to give good results as the MJC failure criterion. The maximum shear stress fracture criterion fails to capture the shear plugging failure and material fracture properties cannot be fully characterized with the constant fracture strain.