Penetration of a projectile into an aluminum plate Abaqus

Product Overview

In this example, we simulate the perforation of an AA5083-H116 Aluminum plate by a conical-nose projectile using the Abaqus software.

The projectile impacts the Aluminum plate at high velocity and penetrates the target through a process involving large plastic deformation, ductile hole enlargement, and material failure. The projectile is modeled as a rigid body, while the Aluminum plate is modeled as a deformable target.

The Johnson-Cook damage model is used to describe the material failure behavior of the AA5083-H116 Aluminum during the high-velocity penetration process. The analysis also considers the effect of temperature on the material response.

The model is analyzed for different projectile velocities, and the corresponding residual velocities are obtained from the Abaqus results. The numerical results are compared with the experimental results reported in the reference study for validation of the numerical model.

Johnson-Cook Damage Model

The Johnson-Cook damage model is used in Abaqus to simulate the material failure behavior of the AA5083-H116 Aluminum during the high-velocity impact. The model is suitable for problems involving large plastic deformation, high strain rates, and ductile failure.

In this simulation, the Johnson-Cook formulation is used to describe the plastic response and damage evolution of the Aluminum plate during projectile penetration. The material response accounts for the effects of plastic strain, strain rate, and temperature.

Effect of Temperature

The effect of temperature is explicitly considered in the Abaqus simulation. A Dynamic, Temp-disp, Explicit analysis is used to account for the interaction between the mechanical deformation and thermal response of the Aluminum plate during projectile impact.

The material properties of the AA5083-H116 Aluminum are defined as temperature-dependent. Therefore, the mechanical response of the material can change with temperature during the impact event.

The coupled temperature-displacement analysis allows the thermal and mechanical responses to be calculated simultaneously. The resulting temperature distribution can therefore be considered together with the deformation, damage, and penetration of the Aluminum plate during the impact process.

Different Projectile Velocities

The penetration problem is analyzed for different projectile velocities to investigate the effect of impact velocity on the perforation behavior of the AA5083-H116 Aluminum plate.

Four projectile striking velocities of 263.6, 286.4, 303, and 357.3 m/s are considered in the Abaqus simulations. For each case, the initial velocity of the projectile is changed while the other model conditions remain unchanged.

The different impact cases are used to investigate the residual velocity of the projectile at different impact velocities.

Ductile Hole Enlargement

The perforation process is primarily governed by ductile hole enlargement as the projectile penetrates the AA5083-H116 Aluminum plate.

As the conical-nose projectile moves through the target, the material around the penetration path undergoes significant plastic deformation. The initial hole is progressively enlarged by the radial pressure generated by the projectile during penetration.

The deformation is concentrated around the penetration channel, where the Aluminum undergoes plastic flow and local thickening. The resulting penetration channel remains relatively regular as the projectile passes through the target.

This mechanism is consistent with the behavior reported in the reference experimental study, where the Aluminum plates were perforated through ductile hole enlargement rather than plug separation.

Residual Velocity

The residual velocity (final velocity) of the projectile is obtained from the Abaqus results. A diagram of the residual velocity is plotted based on the striking velocity (initial velocity) of the projectile.

Validation

This project has been validated, which means that the results obtained from the Abaqus software are similar to the results reported in the reference article.

In other words, this project is based on the reference research article.

What You Will Learn

• How to model projectile penetration into an aluminum plate in Abaqus.
• How to model a rigid projectile.
• How to model an AA5083-H116 Aluminum plate.
• How to define the thermal properties of Aluminum.
• How to consider the effect of temperature on deformation.
• How to use the Johnson-Cook damage model for material failure.
• How to analyze the model for different projectile velocities.
• How to obtain the residual velocity of the projectile.
• How to plot the residual velocity versus striking velocity diagram.
• How to validate the numerical model using the reference article.

Key Features

• Projectile penetration analysis.
• Rigid projectile modeling.
• AA5083-H116 Aluminum plate.
• Johnson-Cook damage model.
• High-velocity impact analysis.
• Temperature-dependent analysis.
• Thermal properties of Aluminum.
• Analysis for different projectile velocities.
• Residual velocity calculation.
• Residual velocity versus striking velocity diagram.
• Validation against the reference article.
• Complete Abaqus CAE file.
• Abaqus INP file.
• Excel file (Results).
• Reference research paper.
• Step-by-step video tutorial.

Reference

This project is based on the reference research article. The research paper is included with the project files and can be used to review the projectile penetration problem and the reported results.