Analysis of impact resistance for two groups of ceramic and composite materials

Complex experimental and theoretical studies of shock-wave characteristics and penetration parameters are conducted to develop physical and mathematical models of deformation and fracture of ceramic and composite materials under high-velocity loading. The purpose of this work is to investigate the fracture of ceramic and composite targets and their efficiency in ceramic-containing structures. The experiments are performed using a ballistic test stand (Research Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, National Research Tomsk State University). The deformation and fracture of ceramic (aluminum oxide Al$_{2}$O$_{3}$, aluminum oxide (KVP-98, corundum), zirconium dioxide ZrO$_{2}$, silicon carbide SiC) and composite (TiC-NiCr and TiB$_{2}$-B$_{4}$C) materials are studied experimentally in the impact velocity range of 0.5-6.5 km/s. The dynamics of the fracture of ceramic plates (silicon carbide and aluminum oxide) is analyzed. The fragments of the plates and their size distribution are given. The study of the impact resistance of ceramic and composite samples reveals two groups of materials with essentially different levels of efficiency. For both groups, the dependence of the efficiency parameter on the impact velocity demonstrates a decrease in the velocity range from 0.5 to 3.0-4.5 km/s and a subsequent increase when the impact velocity tends to 6.5 km/s. The obtained experimental results may be used during the validation and verification of numerical and analytical models, approaches, and software packages.