Mechanics of penetration into ceramic targets

A model for the penetration into a ceramic target with the formation of an expanding conical hole is proposed that can be used to determine the opening angle of the cone knocked out from the targets. The main cause of this fracture of ceramics is that the tensile strength of ceramic is much lower than its compressive strength. A method for calculating the maximum penetration velocity into a ceramic target without substrate was developed using the energy fracture criterion for ceramics. Two-dimensional numerical simulation of the impact of a steel projectile on a corundum plate showed satisfactory agreement between the calculated and experimental configurations of the resulting conical crack provided that the ratio between the compressive and tensile strengths is consistent with the recommendations of the developed model.