Ballistic Testing and Simulation of Co-continuous Ceramic Composite for Body Armour

Co-Continuous Ceramic Composites, referred to as C4, have bi-continuous, interconnected and interpenetrating phases of a metal and ceramic. This bestows such composites with a higher strength to weight ratio compared with traditional composites. In this research work, a C4 composite of AA5083/SiC is fabricated for personal body armour, using gravity infiltration technique. A numerical simulation model of the C4 specimen is developed. This finite element model is utilized to simulate the DoP of a subsonic bullet into the C4 and is estimated as 1.47 mm. The C4 specimen is then, subjected to ballistic tests. A medium velocity projectile with a rated velocity of 326 m/s is used to impact the C4 specimen. The ballistic tests validate the numerical simulation with a DoP of 1.5 mm. Visual inspection reveals brittle cracks and interfacial debonding in the impacted C4. The results indicate that, such composites can potentially be utilized as low cost body armour.