Numerical simulation of ballistic penetration of Ti/Al₃Ti metal-intermetallic laminate composites

The ballistic penetration process of projectile with different initial velocities impacting Ti/Al₃Ti metal-intermetallic laminate (MIL) composites target was simulated using LS-DYNA nonlinear dynamic explicit finite element code. The effects of the Ti volume fraction, the stack number and the optimal distribution of material on anti-penetrating performance of laminated-composite target plate were studied. The results show that the volume fraction of Ti has an important influence on the penetration resistance of the composite target. While up to 20%, it appears the best anti-penetration performance. The ballistic resistance of composite target plate increases with the increase of the layer number. When the layer number exceeds 25, the ballistic performance of composite target plate gradually stabilizes. The anti-penetration performance of the functionally graded plates with different lamination structures is quite different, the positive gradient plates is obviously superior to that of the equal thickness homogeneous plate.