Relationships between distribution characteristics of ceramic fragments and anti-penetration performance of ceramic composite bulletproof insert plates

Abstract Through quantitative statistics and morphological characterization of ceramic fragments for ceramic composite bulletproof insert plates (CCBIPs), distribution characteristics of ceramic fragments within a specific size range were analyzed for different Armor Piercing Incendiary (API) and shot times. To quantitatively evaluate the effect of energy absorption for ceramic plates, a model of energy absorption during penetration for CCBIPs was established based on statistics of the size distribution of ceramic fragments (SDCF). Variation in the SDCF and its influence on energy absorption for CCBIPs were investigated. The results indicate that the distribution feature of ceramic fragments in the range of 0.25–2.25 mm is Gaussian distribution. Compared with Type 56 of API (56-API), ceramic fragments formed by 53-API with higher kinetic energy possess more quantity and more concentrated distribution, whose average equivalence size decreases by 6.5%, corresponding to increasing by 83.9% of estimated energy absorption. Besides, the ability of CCBIPs to resist the third shot is significantly weakened, whose estimated energy absorption decreases by 58.8% compared with the first shot. More concentrated distribution and fewer fragments are formed after the third shot, the average equivalence size of ceramic fragments increases by 6.9%, which may attribute to the micro-cracks induced by the previous two shots.