Ballistic properties of bioinspired nacre-like ceramic/polyurea staggered composite structures

We proposed a bioinspired ceramic/polyurea composite plate that draws on a “brick-mortar” arrangement of nacre layer, with a periodic three-dimensional structure and interlayers polyurea elastomers. We fired a 12.7 mm armor-piercing incendiary bullet using a ballistic gun to conduct depth-of-penetration (DOP) experiments. We analyzed the damage, fracture morphology, and residual DOP of ceramic/polyurea-staggered composite structures (CPSCS), with a theoretical prediction model for the residual DOP. Using the adaptive FEM-SPH algorithm, we compared the damage morphology of CPSCSs. We analyzed projectile penetration process and summarized four toughening modes using stress wave propagation. Based on simulation fitting and theoretical calculations, we obtained the residual DOP curves at different projectile velocities and analyzed the toughening effect of the CPSCSs through the energy dissipation of each structural component. When the areal density was the same, the residual DOP of the CPSCSs decreased by 33.9 %, and the critical velocity theoretically increased by 32.72 %. The error between the model calculations and experimental results was 11 %. The CPSCSs enabled the ceramic to increase the energy absorption efficiency by 179.70 %. With the same structural form, changing the thickness of only one component did not have the same effect on the structural energy-absorption efficiency as changing the entire form.