International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

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International Journal of Impact Engineering

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / i j i m p e n g

An investigation of the constitutive behavior of Armox 500T steel and

armor piercing incendiary projectile material
M.A. Iqbal a,*, K. Senthil a, P. Sharma b, N.K. Gupta c
a Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India
b Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, Chandigarh 160003, India
c
Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: A detailed investigation has been carried out for studying the constitutive behavior of Armox 500T steel
Received 30 January 2016 and armor piercing incendiary projectile (API) material under varying stress state, strain rate and tem-
Received in revised form 17 May 2016 perature. The characterization of Armox 500T steel showed increase in its strength with increase in stress
Accepted 22 May 2016
triaxiality as well as strain rate. Increment in temperature, on the other hand, induced signicant in-
Available online 26 May 2016
crease in the material ductility while reducing its strength. The API projectile material remained insensitive
to stress-triaxiality and strain rate; however, it was highly sensitive to thermal effects. Results thus ob-
Keywords:
tained from experiments on the specimens of both the materials were subsequently employed for calibrating
Armox 500T steel
Armor piercing incendiary projectile the material parameters of JohnsonCook (JC) ow and fracture model. The calibrated JC model for Armox
Material characterization 500T steel has been validated by numerically simulating the high strain rate tension tests performed on
Calibration of JohnsonCook model split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus.
Ballistic limit The ballistic experiments were carried out wherein 8 and 10 mm thick Armox 500T steel target plates
were impacted by 7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles respectively at a normal incidence with a velocity of nearly
830 m/s. The results of the ballistic tests were reproduced through nite element simulations per-
formed on ABAQUS/Explicit nite element code employing calibrated JC model for the target as well as
the projectile material. Experimental and numerical ndings with respect to failure mechanism and bal-
listic resistance of the target are presented and discussed. It is seen that the computed failure modes
and residual velocities accurately matched the experiments.
Further, the ballistic limit of the target material was obtained numerically and the values obtained
were validated through the RechtIpson empirical model.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction solute temperature [27]. Failure in a ductile material is initiated

The mechanics of perforation of metal targets due to a projec-
tile impact is associated with viscous and thermal effects, which
signicantly inuence the material behavior of the interacting
bodies. The simulation of perforation process therefore requires a
detailed description of the projectile and the target materials through
a constitutive model capable of incorporating the inuence of
large strain, high strain rate and high temperature besides being
able to model crack propagation, degradation and fracture of the
material [1].
The multiaxial state of stress in a constitutive model is gener-
ally expressed in terms of equivalent von-Mises yield stress as a
function of accumulated plastic strain, plastic strain rate and ab-
* Corresponding author. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India. Tel.: +91 9897379426, +91 1332 285866;
Fax: +91 1332 275568.
E-mail addresses: iqbal_ashraf@rediffmail.com; iqbalfce@iitr.ac.in (M.A. Iqbal).
by nucleation and coalescence of micro voids originating from the
point of impact and disseminating through the material due to lo-
calized plastic ow. Rapid nucleation, coalescence and growth of
voids reduce ductility of the material and hence its fracture strain.
Available studies in literature [2,811] reveal that ductility of a ma-
terial strongly depends on the stress state, which in turn is related
to stress triaxiality, such that the fracture strain decreases with in-
crease in the stress triaxiality. Material ductility is seen to moderately
decrease with increase in strain rate, while it is signicantly en-
hanced with increase in temperature beyond a limit [1215]. A
number of available constitutive models describe the failure in metals
in terms of equivalent fracture strain, dened as a function of stress
triaxiality [2,16,17], strain rate and temperature [2,1823]. These
models based on macro mechanics approach vary in their degree
of complexity and robustness in capturing ow and fracture be-
havior in metals [27,16,19,21].
Wierzbicki et al. [24] carried out a comparative investigation of
the fracture mechanism of 2024-T351 aluminum coupons using
seven different conventional fracture models [XueWierzbicki (XW),

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2016.05.017
0734-743X/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164
Wilkins, JohnsonCook (JC), crash FEM, maximum shear stress,
constant equivalent strain criteria, fracture forming limit diagram].
Specimens of various geometries facilitated the failure of material
through distinct modes of deformation and hence enabled the cal-
ibration of different material models and correlation of their
predictions. The maximum shear stress criterion fairly repro-
duced the failure preceded by shear localization but could not predict
fracture under axi-symmetric loading. The XW model, constructed
under three-dimensional space of invariants, adequately dealt with
all the stress states and predicted the failure mechanisms fairly well.
The Wilkins criterion could not reproduce good results under a com-
bination of large and small range of stress triaxiality due to separable
effect of hydrostatic and deviatoric stress states on the material duc-
tility. The crash FEM model was able to distinguish the ductile and
shear fracture. The JohnsonCook model, FFLD approach and con-
stant equivalent strain reproduced the experimental results well
within a narrow range of stress triaxiality.
Teng and Wierzbicki [25] further employed six distinct frac-
ture models to predict the damage in Weldox 460 E steel and 2024-
T351 aluminum plates impacted by blunt nosed projectiles.
Assuming the projectile to be rigid, the ow behavior of both the
target materials was simulated employing JohnsonCook plastici-
ty model. The actual and predicted failure mechanism and residual
projectile velocities were compared and the limitations of each frac-
ture model were discussed. The Wilkins fracture model predicted
unrealistic spallation of both the materials due to absence of duc-
tility effects. The maximum shear stress criterion could not predict
the shear plugging under a range of incidence velocities. The re-
sultant critical shear stress caused either premature or incomplete
target failure. The single parameter based modied Cockcroft
Latham model could not reproduce damage as well as residual
velocities in low as well as high ductility materials. The conven-
tional critical strain and the simplied BaoWierzbicki (BW) fracture
models also failed to give satisfactory results for a wide range of
problems. On the other hand, JC failure model reproduced realis-
tic predictions of fracture behavior and residual projectile velocities.
Banerjee [26] studied the limitations of ve different strain rate
and temperature dependent ow stress models by simulating the
behavior of OFHC copper under one dimensional tension and com-
pression tests performed at varying strain rate and temperature.
Stressstrain relations, strain rate and temperature dependence of
yield stress, fracture strain and hardening and softening response
were studied and compared for JC, SteinbergCochranGuinan
Lund (SCGL), ZerilliArmstrong (ZA), mechanical threshold (MTS)
and PrestonTonksWallace (PTW) models. The JC model overes-
timated the initial yield for the quasi-static test performed at room
temperature and underestimated the rate of hardening for the test
performed at room temperature at 8000 s1 strain rate. The SCGL
model underestimated the softening at high temperature but ac-
curately predicted the yield stress at 8000 s1 strain rate. At room
temperature, the ZA model accurately predicted the quasi-static yield
stress but underestimated the yield stress at 8000 s1 strain rate. The
yield stress at 4000 s1 strain rate was reasonably predicted; however,
the decrement of yield stress with increasing temperature was over-
estimated. The MTS model underestimated the yield stress at 296 K
temperature and 8000 s1 strain rate while it accurately predicted
the same at 1023 K and 1800 s1. At 1173 K temperature, the model
overestimated the yield stress for the quasi static test and accu-
rately predicted its value at high strain rate. The PTW model explicitly
accounted for the rapid increase in yield stress at strain rate above
1000 s1 and performed better under the tests carried out in com-
pression than in tension. For the Taylor impact simulations, however,
the JC model has reproduced the mushroomed diameter and the
nal length most accurately. All the other models though cor-
rectly predicted the nal length but underestimated the
mushroomed diameter.
147
Sjoberg et al. [27] calibrated JC and ZA constitutive models for
alloy 718 (composed of nickel, iron and chromium) and simulated
the instrumented reverse impact experiment to measure force time
histories, which eventually enabled the validation of the model. The
force time history relationship reproduced using the Johnson
Cook model was found to have closer agreement with experiments
in comparison to that from the ZA model.
The selection of a constitutive model for simulating a nite element
problem is primarily governed by its accuracy, robustness, simplis-
tic formulation and physical interpretation of ow and fracture
algorithms. The compatibility of the model with the available nite
element codes, number of material parameters, their availability and
calibration procedure are some practical and important consider-
ations. A phenomenological model capable of representing effective
stress and damage concepts in a simplied manner, employing
minimum number of material parameters, is considered more real-
istic and practical. The explicit and easy calibration procedure, fewer
number of parameters, availability in most of the nite element codes
and capability of simulating local and global structural behavior are
the reasons for widespread utility and acceptability of the Johnson
Cook model for predicting perforation in metals [12,15,2831].
Although the formulation of the JC model has been somewhat criti-
cized due to its purely empirical approach and uncoupled physical
interpretations [5,13,26,32,33], its uncoupled approach has enabled
exibility of including or omitting the complexity in modeling the
material behavior, which, has proven to be of practical signicance.
In the available studies, the penetration and perforation of metallic
plates have been effectively simulated numerically by employing the
JC model for predicting the ow and the fracture characteristics of
the target and the projectile [14,15,2931,34].
Borvik et al. [12,13] introduced damage in the JC ow stress model
and modied the strain rate sensitivity expression [12] for predict-
ing the plugging phenomenon in 12 mm thick Weldox 460 E steel
plates impacted by blunt nosed projectiles. The model was imple-
mented in explicit nite element code LS-DYNA and also coupled
with an element kill algorithm to allow crack growth during pen-
etration. The simulations of plugging failure of metallic plates
matched the experimental ndings reasonably well. The model was
found capable of describing the main target response and physi-
cal material behavior and reproduced ballistic limit within 10%
accuracy. In order to study the inuence of various physical char-
acteristics employed in the model, simulations of plugging failure
were further carried out by including and omitting various model
parameters [12]. The size of element was found to be a vital pa-
rameter such that none of the models could predict the ballistic limit
even within 30% accuracy when coarser mesh was used. All the
models showed good agreement with experimental ndings at in-
cidence velocities well above the ballistic limit. However, close to
ballistic limit the difference between the results of various models
became more prominent. The strain rate, temperature and stress
states were all found important parameters, as their omitting in-
troduced signicant errors in the results.
Iqbal et al. [15] performed nite element simulations for study-
ing the ballistic performance of 12 and 16 mm thick mild steel targets
against 7.62 AP projectile at varying obliquity until the occurrence
of projectile ricochet. The target material was characterized and cali-
brated for obtaining all the material parameters of JC ow stress
and fracture strain model. The calibrated material parameters were
also validated by numerically simulating the high strain rate tension
tests. Experimental and numerical true stressstrain relations were
found to match closely. The target failure mechanism, residual pro-
jectile velocity and critical angle of ricochet were also closely
predicted by the model.
The above studies show that the JC model is capable of accu-
rately capturing the ow and fracture material characteristics in
perforation problems involving varying stress-state, strain rate and
148 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

temperature. The model has been calibrated for various materials Table 1
including structural and armor steels and aluminum alloys Chemical composition of Armox 500T steel.

[1215,30,31]. However, the studies pertaining to the character- Chemical composition EDX spectroscopy As per the certicate of
ization and ballistic evaluation of Armox 500T steel could not be SSAB
found in the open literature despite the primary armor application C 0.3484 0.28
of the alloy. Further, as far as the small arms projectiles are con- Si 0.2732 0.26
cerned, the armor piercing projectile is a major threat to body and Mn 0.7672 0.91
P 0.0208 0.008
vehicle armor and it is signicantly studied in the open literature. S 0.0066 0.001
However, the material model of the projectile, which is complete Cr 0.5042 0.5
and accurate, is still not available in the literature [30,31,35,36]. Ni 0.7498 0.94
The present work is based on a detailed investigation of the ma- Mo 0.349
Al 0.0243 0.053
terial behavior of Armox 500T steel and armor piercing incendiary
Cu 0.1429
projectiles (7.62 API and 12.7 API) under varying stress state, strain
rate and temperature. The armor as well as projectile materials were
calibrated for obtaining the original JC model parameters through spectroscopy and the percentages of the ingredients thus deter-
curve tting method. The calibrated JC model for Armox 500T steel mined are given in Table 1.
was also validated by numerically simulating the high strain rate Smooth cylindrical tension test specimens of 6.25 mm diame-
material tests. The material parameters were subsequently em- ter and 32 mm gauge length (see Fig. 1 (a)) were prepared in
ployed for numerically simulating the ballistic trials conducted on accordance with ASTM 370-12. To study any possible anisotropy of
8 and 10 mm thick Armox 500T steel plate targets impacted re- the material, these specimens were extracted in 0, 45 and 90 di-
spectively by 7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles at normal incidence velocity rections, and quasi-static uniaxial tension tests were performed on
close to 830 m/s. The experimental and computed ballistic results Tinius Olsen H75KS and Milano Controls UTM (universal testing
obtained with respect to target failure mechanism and residual pro- machine) at a constant strain rate, 1.6 104 s1. The engineering
jectile velocities are presented, compared and discussed. The ballistic stressstrain curves plotted in Fig. 1(b) do not show signicant vari-
limit of both the targets was also evaluated numerically and the results ation, and the material was assumed to be isotropic. In order to
were validated through RechtIpson empirical model. evaluate the true stressstrain relation, the diameter reduction of
the smooth cylindrical specimen was continuously measured up to
2. Material characterization of Armox 500T steel fracture with the help of a digital vernier caliper. The true stress
was obtained as the force per unit actual cross-sectional area, F/Ac,
The Armox 500T steel is considered suitable for civil and mili- and the true strain, ln (Ai /Ac) where Ai and Ac are the initial and
tary ballistic applications due to its high strength and high hardness. current cross-sectional areas of the specimen respectively. The
This steel was procured in the form of plates of different thick- Bridgman [37] correction was applied to the measured true stress
nesses and the coupons for material tests were extracted from the and the corrected true stressstrain relationship thus obtained cor-
middle of a 20 mm thick plate. The average hardness of the mate- responding to different material orientations is shown in Fig. 2(a).
rial was found as 501 BHN on a 10 mm 10 mm 10 mm cubical The corresponding JC hardening curves are presented in Fig. 2(b)
specimen with respect to in plane as well as out of plane surface, for comparison. The corresponding JC strength parameters A, B and
with 10% variation in different observations. Chemical composi- n obtained for the three material orientations, presented in Table 2,
tion of the material was studied by energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) show insignicant variation.

(a)

(b) 1800
Engineering stress (MPa)

1500

1200

900

600
0
300 45
90
0
0 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12
Engineering strain

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of smooth cylindrical specimen and (b) experimental engineering stressstain curves of Armox 500T steel under tension.
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164
2000
1800
True stress (MPa)
1600
0 - Experimetns
45 - Experiments
1400
90 - Experiments
1200
1000
0 0.2 0.4 0.6
True strain
Fig. 2. True stressstrain curves of Armox 500T steel; (a) experimental and (b) tted JC model.
Table 2
Material parameters corresponding to different orientations of Armox 500T steel plates.
Orientation A B
0 1372.488 535.022
45 1423.264 499.414
90 1319.869 504.696
2.1. Effect of stress triaxiality
The stress triaxiality has been found to have signicant inu-
ence on material ductility [8,38,39] such that there is increase in
material ductility with decrease in stress triaxiality. The initial stress
triaxiality was introduced by producing an articial notch in the cy-
lindrical specimen (Fig. 3 (a)) and measured at the center of the notch
assuming it to be constant. According to Bridgmans analysis [37]
the initial stress triaxiality ratio could be calculated in terms of
maximum stress triaxiality ratio, max* ;
1 a
*max = + ln 1 +
3 2R
where R is curvature radius of the notch and a is the radius of
the specimen at the middle of the notched region. In the present
study, the initial stress triaxiality ratio has been varied as 1.95, 1.43,
0.927, 0.765 and 0.67 by varying the curvature radius of the notched
specimen as 0.4, 0.8, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 mm respectively (see Fig. 3(b)
for the undeformed and Fig. 3(c) for the deformed specimens). The
specimens of different notched curvature radii extracted from 0 ori-
entation were tested under tension on 70-S11U02 Milano Controls
UTM at a constant strain-rate 1.6 104 s1 and the engineering stress
strain relations thus obtained are plotted in Fig. 4. The stress
strain relations were recorded with the help of integrated data
acquisition system and inbuilt load cell based piston of the UTM.
With increase in stress triaxiality, the fracture strain and therefore
the material ductility have been found to decrease. The stress
strain curves of the notched specimens have been found to have
serrations due to the nonlinear specimen geometry. In case of the
smooth cylindrical specimen on the other hand, the serrations have
been found to be insignicant (Fig. 4). Clausen et al. [14] also ob-
served serrations more distinguished in notched specimens than
in smooth cylindrical specimens of 5083 H116 aluminum alloy under
quasi-static tension tests.
2.2. Effect of strain rate
The low and intermediate strain rate uniaxial tests were carried
out on smooth cylindrical specimens of diameter 6.25 mm and gauge
149
2000
1800
True stress (MPa)
1600
0 - Johnson-Cook model
1400 45 - Johnson-Cook model
90 - Johnson-Cook model
1200
(a) (b)
1000
0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
True strain
length 32 mm (Fig. 1(a)). These tests were performed on Tinius Olsen
H75KS universal testing machine, at strain rate 1.6 1043.3 102 s1.
n The inbuilt load cell of the UTM enabled the application of load. The
0.2467 tension tests at high strain rate (5001000 s1) were performed on
0.2455 smooth cylindrical specimens of diameter 3 mm and gauge length
0.2892 13.4 mm (Fig. 5(a)) on split Hopkinson pressure bar apparatus. The
fractured specimens at low, intermediate and high strain rate are
shown in Fig. 5(b) to (d) respectively. The engineering stress
strain curves obtained at low, intermediate and high strain rates
through respective tests are shown in Fig. 6(a). Typical curves for
repetitions performed at strain rate 0.01 s1 and 850 s1 are shown
in Fig. 6(b) and (c) respectively. The reason behind the serrations
obtained in the medium strain rate test (Fig. 6(b)) might be the very
high operation speed of UTM, 90 mm/min. The tests carried out in
the range 1.6 104 s13.3 102 s1 showed insignicant inu-
ence of strain rate on the material behavior with respect to its
hardening, stressstrain relation or fracture behavior. At high strain
rate, however, the strength of the material was seen to have in-
creased signicantly (Fig. 6(a)). Generally, the material tests at strain
rate 10+210+5 s1 are performed on split Hopkinson pressure bar ap-
(1)
paratus based on the principle of one dimensional elastic wave
propagation theory [40]. The accuracy of the tension tests per-
formed on split Hopkinson bar is based on the force equilibrium
at the ends of the specimen, which requires the specimen to be
loaded uniformly throughout its length. Proper xity of the spec-
imen is crucial for maintaining the force equilibrium during tension
test. In the present study, therefore, the compatibility between the
threads of the specimen and that of the incident and transmission
bars was carefully maintained to ensure proper xity at both ends.
Moreover, the specimen, being considerably smaller (gauge length
13.4 mm) in comparison to that of the incident (2.0 m) and trans-
mission (2.0 m) bars, has been assumed to have reached the force
equilibrium after several reections of elasto-plastic waves inside
it. The pulse was generated by hitting the 0.5 m long and 20 mm
diameter maraging steel striker to the incident bar. The strain gauges
were xed to the incident as well as transmission bars to record
the incident and transmitted wave respectively with the help of an
oscilloscope. The duration of the pulse was 5 105 s. The nominal
difference in the repetitions of the tension tests may be due to
mechanical/data acquisition error.
2.3. Effect of temperature
The tension tests at varying temperature were carried out on
smooth cylindrical specimens of gauge diameter 6.25 and gauge
length 32 mm (Fig. 1(a)). These tests were performed at 100, 200,
300, 400, 500, 600, 750 and 900 C on servo-hydraulic UTM at the
150 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

(a)

R0.4

R0.8

R2.0

(b)
R3.0

R4.0

R0.4

R0.8

R2.0
(c)
R3.0

R4.0

R
8

Fig. 3. Notched specimens of Armox 500T steel with different initial notch radii; (a) schematic, (b) un-deformed and (c) deformed.

strain rate 1.6 104 s1. A portable furnace of internal diameter

60 mm and height 220 mm was used to vary the temperature of the
specimen. The furnace was rmly held between the platens of the
UTM with the help of steel xture and the specimen was placed
3000 inside the furnace. The temperature of the furnace was controlled
R0.4 by the high temperature furnace microcontroller. Two thermo-
Engineering stress (MPa)

2500 R0.8 couples were inserted in the furnace and held close to the specimen
R2.0 surface to measure its temperature. As the inside diameter of the
2000 R3.0 furnace was very small (60 mm), the specimen temperature and the
R4.0 furnace temperature have been assumed to remain identical. The
1500 rate of temperature increase was kept as 10 C per minute. The re-
quired temperature was kept constant for about 30 minutes before
1000 the test, in order to ensure proper heating of the specimen. The lon-
gitudinal strain of the specimen was measured with the help of two
500 LVDTs (linear variable displacement transducer). The ow stress of
the material was found to be signicantly affected due to the vari-
0 ation in the temperature. Initially, the ow stress increased slightly
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 when the temperature increased up to 200 C (see Fig. 7(a)). This
Engineering strain phenomenon is known as the blue brittle effect, whereby the
strength of steel increases and the ductility decreases on heating.
Fig. 4. The stressstrain curves of Armox 500T steel obtained under tension for dif- At 300 C temperature, however, the ultimate stress of the mate-
ferent initial notch radii. rial was seen to reduce while the fracture strain increased. At 600 C
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164
(a) Schematic of the specimen for high strain rate tests
(b) Tested specimens at low strain rate
(c) Tested specimens at intermediate strain
(d) Tested specimens at high strain rate
Fig. 5. Specimens of Armox 500T steel; (a) schematic for high strain rate tension
test and (b), (c) and (d) tested in tension at low intermediate and high strain rates
respectively.
temperature, the ultimate stress reduced abruptly. At 900 C tem-
perature, the material lost all of its strength and the specimen
underwent signicant elongation before breakage. The typical rep-
etitions performed at 400 C temperature are shown in Fig. 7(b). The
test results showed that the yield stress of the material decreased
with increase in temperature while the ow stress exhibited a local
maximum at a temperature of about 200 C. The fracture mode of
the specimens at varying temperature is also shown in Fig. 8. Above
400 C temperature, the diameter of the fractured specimen reduced
and thermal softening became more visible. At 900 C, the soften-
ing of material caused purely ductile failure.
3. Material characterization of API projectiles
The armor piercing incendiary projectiles used in the present study
are thermally active projectiles, possessing incendiary material between
the steel core and the jacket. The incendiary gun powder may ignite
151
after coming in contact with the target and induce re in case the
target possesses inammable characteristics. The 7.62 API projectile
(Fig. 9(a)), a common threat to human beings, is generally red through
a standard rie or bipod mounted light and heavy machine guns. The
12.7 API projectile (Fig. 9(b)) is considered a major threat to armored
vehicle, sentry bunker and aircraft, and is usually red by carriage
mounted air defense gun which enables fairly high rate of ring.
The average Vickers hardness (HV) of 7.62 and 12.7 API projec-
tiles measured at their various locations (Fig. 10(a) and (b)
respectively) was found to be 831 and 812 respectively. The ulti-
mate tensile strength of both of these projectiles could be roughly
calculated to be three times the Vickers hardness number [30,31,41],
and is estimated to be approximately 2300 MPa. The chemical com-
position of 7.62 and 12.7 API cores was studied at three different
locations through the length of the core with the help of EDX spec-
troscopy, and the constituents are reported in Table 3.
As the size of the projectiles was very small (shank length 20.7
and 24.4 mm respectively for 7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles), it was
dicult to machine them to standard specimen. The machining of
the projectiles was also restricted by the ogival curvature of the nose.
These limitations led to the preparation of miniature specimens of
gauge diameter 2.5 mm and gauge length 10 mm from the shank
of the hardened steel core (see Fig. 11(a) and (b) respectively for
the specimens prepared out of the core of 7.62 and 12.7 API pro-
jectiles). These specimens were held through a specially designed
dog bone arrangement (Fig. 11(c) and (d)) and tested under tension
on Tinius Olsen H75KS machine at strain rate 1 104 s1 and cor-
responding cross head speed 0.1 mm/m (see Fig. 11(e) and (f)
respectively for deformed specimens). The engineering stress
strain curves obtained on the core material of 7.62 and 12.7 API
projectiles are shown in Fig. 12. The specimens underwent insig-
nicant plastic deformation and experienced sudden failure. The
static yield strength of the material was obtained as 0.2% proof stress.
There was a close agreement between the material behavior of
7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles with respect to hardness, chemical com-
position and stressstrain relation, and therefore further material
tests were carried out only on the 12.7 API projectiles.
The initial stress triaxiality was introduced by machining an ar-
ticial notch in the smooth cylindrical specimens of the API projectile.
The value of the initial stress triaxiality was varied by varying the
curvature radius of the notch as 0.4, 0.8 and 2.0 mm, keeping a con-
stant gauge diameter of 2.5 mm. These notched specimens were
tested on Tinius Olsen H75KS UTM machine at a constant strain-
rate 1 104 s1 and corresponding cross head speed 0.1 mm/min.
The un-deformed and deformed specimens are shown in Fig. 13 (a)
and (b) respectively. The engineering stressstrain curves ob-
tained under uniaxial tension at different initial stress triaxialities
(notch radii) are shown in Fig. 14. The fracture strain of the mate-
rial corresponding to different stress triaxialities has been found to
be nearly the same (0.0110.0125), and its inuence on material
ductility is quite insignicant.
The high strain rate tests in the range 27995333 s1 were per-
formed under compression on cylindrical tablet specimens of 5 mm
diameter and 5 mm height using split Hopkinson pressure bar ap-
paratus. The deformed tablet specimens are shown in Fig. 15. The
strain in the specimen material was measured with the help of strain
gauges xed to the incident and transmission bars and the data were
recorded with the help of an oscilloscope. The engineering stress
was obtained as force per unit initial cross-sectional area.
The true stressstrain curve obtained under uniaxial tension test
performed on cylindrical specimens at quasi-static strain rate,
6 104 s1, is shown in Fig. 16(a). The cylindrical specimens of pro-
jectiles did not depict strain localization and neck formation (see
Fig. 11(f)). The actual cross-sectional area of these specimens could
not be measured during the tests as the specimens underwent
sudden failure. Therefore, the true stress, t, and true strain, t, have
152 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

1800
0.000167/s Strain Rate 0.01 1/s
2400 0.001667/s 1600

Engineering stress (MPa)

Engineering stress (MPa)
0.010/s 1400
2000
0.033/s
1200
1600 850/s
950/s 1000
1200 800
600 Trial 1
800
400 Trial 2
400 Trial 3
(a) 200 (b)
0 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12
Engineering strain Engineering strain

3000
Strain Rate 850 1/s
Engineering stress (MPa)

2500

2000

1500

1000 Trial 1
Trial 2
500
(c) Trial 3
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06
Engineering strain

Fig. 6. Stressstrain curves of Armox 500T steel under tension (a) at varying strain rate, (b) repetitions performed at 0.01 s1 and (c) repetitions performed at 850 s1
strain rate.

been calculated using the expressions t = (1 + ) and t = ln (1 + ), due to high strength projectile material, the tablet specimens were
respectively, where and represent the engineering stress and prepared of comparatively smaller diameter (5 mm). The reduced
strain respectively. The true stressstrain curves under uniaxial com- diameter of specimen enabled the development of the required strain
pression tests performed on tablet specimens at strain rate 2799 rate at comparatively lesser incidence velocity and thus helped to
5333 s1 (Fig. 16 (b)) have also been calculated using the same avoid the damage to the attached strain gauges.
expression. The results of compression tests exhibited serrations pos- The specimens (of API projectiles) for the temperature tests had
sibly due to very high strain rate and high strength of the projectile gauge diameter 3 mm and gauge length 10 mm (see Fig. 17(a)) and
material. The results of the quasi-static uniaxial tension tests have were tested in tension at 27, 400, 520, 600, 700, and 950 C on servo-
also been added in Fig. 16(b) for comparison. As such, no distin- hydraulic UTM at the strain rate 6 104 s1. A portable furnace was
guished inuence of the strain rate has been observed on the employed for heating the specimen to the required temperature con-
material behavior of the projectile. The Hopkinson pressure bar ap- trolled by a micro-temperature controller. The specimen was heated
paratus employed in the present study for performing high strain to the desired temperature at the rate of 10 C per minute, and main-
rate tests had the strength of incident and transmission bars ap- tained for half an hour at the given temperature in order to get it
proximately 2400 MPa and diameter 20 mm. Therefore, in order to heated uniformly before the application of mechanical load. The
avoid any permanent damage to the incident and transmission bars inside temperature of the furnace was recorded using the K-type

2000 2000
(a) 20 C (b)
100 C 1750
Engineering stress (MPa)

Engineering stress (MPa)

1600 200 C 1500

300 C
1200 400 C 1250
500 C 1000
800 600 C
750 Trial 1
750 C
900 C 500 Trial 2
400
250 Trial 3
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Engineering strain Engineering strain

Fig. 7. Stressstrain curves of Armox 500T steel under tension (a) at varying temperature and (b) repetitions at 400 C temperature.
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164 153

Table 3
Chemical composition of 7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles.

Elements 7.62 API projectile (%) 12.7 API projectile (%)

Fe 84.06 84.49
C 12.27 11.74
100 C 200 C Mn 0.63 0.65
Si 0.69 0.67
Cu 0.49 0.41
Cr 0.42 0.38
K 0.30 0.23
S 0.13 0.27
Ni 0.72 0.28
300 C P 0.05 0.35
400 C
Al 0.26 0.54

1280 MPa; however, it had insignicant inuence on the fracture

strain. With increase in temperature to 600 C, the strength further
500 C 600 C decreased to 800 MPa without signicant increase in fracture strain.
When the temperature reached 950 C, the ultimate strength reduced
to 600 MPa and the fracture strain increased to 19%.

4. Constitutive modeling

750 C 900 C
Fig. 8. Fractured surfaces of the specimens of Armox 500T steel at varying
temperature.
thermocouples held near the center of the specimen. Elongation of
the specimen was measured by two LVDTs (linear variable dis-
placement transducers). The fractured surface of the specimen at
varying temperatures is shown in Fig. 17(b).
The stressstrain curves of the projectile core have been plotted
in Fig. 18, corresponding to varying temperature. The material be-
havior is seen to be signicantly affected due to temperature
variation. An initial increase in temperature from ambient to 400 C
resulted in the decrease of ultimate stress from 2250 to 1720 MPa
and a signicant increase in fracture strain: almost 12%. A further
increase in temperature to 520 C decreased the ultimate stress to
The ow and fracture behavior of projectile and target materi-
al was predicted employing the JohnsonCook elasto-viscoplastic
material model [2,19] available in ABAQUS [42] nite element code.
The material model is based on the von Mises yield criterion and
associated ow rule. It includes the effect of linear thermo-elasticity,
yielding, plastic ow, isotropic strain hardening, strain rate hard-
ening, softening due to adiabatic heating and damage. The equivalent
von Mises stress of the JohnsonCook model is dened as;
n  pl
( )
pl,  pl, T = A + B ( pl ) 1 + C ln 1 T m
 0
(2)
where A, B, n, C and m are material parameters determined from
different mechanical tests. pl is equivalent plastic strain,  pl is equiv-
alent plastic strain rate,  0 is a reference strain rate and T is non-
dimensional temperature dened as;

Fig. 9. Threats of (a) 7.62 mm and (b) 12.7 mm armor piercing incendiary (API) projectile.

(a) (b)

Fig. 10. Smoothened surfaces across the length of (a) 7.62 and (b) 12.7 API projectile.
154 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

7.62 API Projectile 12.7 API Projectile

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f )

Fig. 11. (a) Machined specimen of 7.62 API projectile, (b) machined specimen of 12.7 API projectile, (c) and (d) dog-bone holding xtures for the projectile specimens, (e)
fractured specimen of 7.62 API projectile, (f) fractured specimen of 12.7 API projectile.

Johnson and Cook [2] extended the failure criterion proposed by

T = ( T T0 ) ( Tmelt T0 ) T0 T Tmelt (3)
Hancock and Mackenzie [8] by incorporating the effect of strain path,
where T is the current temperature, Tmelt is the melting point tem- strain rate and temperature in the fracture strain expression, in ad-
perature and T0 is the room temperature. dition to stress triaxiality. The fracture criterion is based on the
damage evolution wherein the damage of the material is assumed
to occur when the damage parameter, , exceeds unity:
2400
pl
= pl , (4)
2000 f
Engineering stress (MPa)

1600 where pl is an increment of the equivalent plastic strain, fpl is

the strain at failure, and the summation is performed over all the
1200 increments throughout the analysis. The strain at failure fpl is
assumed to be dependent on a non-dimensional plastic strain rate,
800  pl m
; a dimensionless pressure-deviatoric stress ratio, (where
 0
400 12.7 API Projectile m is the mean stress and is the equivalent von Mises stress)
7.62 API Projectile and the non-dimensional temperature, T , dened earlier in the
0 JohnsonCook hardening model. The dependencies are assumed to
0 0.004 0.008 0.012 0.016 be separable and are of the form:
Engineering strain
 pl
fpl m ,  pl, T = D1 + D2 exp D3 m 1 + D4 ln 1 + D5T (5)
Fig. 12. Stressstrain curves of 7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles under tension.  0

(a) Undeformed specimen (b) Deformed specimen

R0.4

R0.8

R2.0

Smooth specimen

Fig. 13. (a) Un-deformed and (b) deformed tension test specimens of API projectiles of different notch radii.
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164 155

2800 2500
27 C
400 C
2400
Engineering stress (MPa)
2000 520 C

Engineering stress (MPa)

600 C
2000
700 C
1500 950 C
1600

1200 R0.4 mm
1000
R0.8 mm
800 R2.0 mm
500
400

0 0
0 0.004 0.008 0.012 0.016 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Engineering strain Engineering strain

Fig. 18. Stressstrain curves of API projectile material under tension at varying
Fig. 14. Stressstrain curves of API projectile material under tension as a function
temperature.
of stress triaxiality.

where D1 D5 are material parameters determined from different

mechanical test,  pl is equivalent plastic strain rate and  0 is a ref-
erence strain rate.
When material damage occurs, the stressstrain relationship no
longer accurately represents the material behavior, ABAQUS [42].
The use of stressstrain relationship beyond ultimate stress intro-
duces a strong mesh dependency based on strain localization, i.e.,
the energy dissipated decreases with a decrease in element size.
Fig. 15. Deformed specimens of API projectile material tested under compression Hillerborgs [43] fracture energy criterion has been employed in the
at high strain rate.
present study to reduce mesh dependency by considering stress-
displacement response after the initiation of damage.

2400 3000
0.0006 1/s
2000 2500
True stress (MPa)

True stress (MPa)

1600 2000

1200 1500

800 1000 2799 1/s

3733 1/s
400 500 5333 1/s
(a) 0.0006 1/s (b)
0 0
0 0.003 0.006 0.009 0.012 0.015 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
True strain True strain

Fig. 16. Stressstrain curves of API projectile material; (a) quasi static tests performed under tension and (b) comparison of the high strain rate compression tests and quasi-
static tension tests.

(a) (b)

Fig. 17. API projectile specimens for high temperature tension tests; (a) un-deformed and (b) deformed.
156 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

2100 1.2
1800 1 Experiments

True stress (MPa)

1500 Johnson-Cook

Fracture strain
0.8
1200
0.6
900
0.4
600
Experiments 0.2
300
(a) (b)
Johnson-Cook
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.8 2.1
True strain Stress triaxiality
1.4
2000
Engineering stress (MPa)

1.2
1600 1

Fracture strain
1200 0.8
0.6
800
0.4
Johnson-Cook Johnson-Cook
400 0.2
(c) Experiments (d) Experiments
0 0
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
Log (strain rate) Log (strain rate)
1800 2.1
Experiments
Engineering stress (MPa)

1500 1.8 Johnson-Cook

1.5
Fracture strain

1200
1.2
900
0.9
600
0.6
300 Johnson-Cook 0.3
(e) (f)
Experiments
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Homologous temperature Homologous temperature

Fig. 19. Calibration of JohnsonCook model for Armox 500T steel (a) true stressstrain relation, (b) fracture strain as a function of stress triaxiality, (c) engineering stress as
a function of strain rate, (d) fracture strain as a function of strain rate, (e) engineering stress as a function of temperature and (f) fracture strain as a function of temperature.

5. Calibration of Armox 500T steel d0

as 2ln , with d0 being the initial specimen diameter and df the
df
The Armox 500T steel has been calibrated for obtaining the ma- fractured diameter. An exponential curve has been tted with ex-
terial parameters of JohnsonCook model by curve tting through perimentally obtained data points using the software OriginPro. The
least square method. The steel plates have been found to be iso- fracture strain has been found to decrease exponentially with in-
tropic, hence the tests conducted at 0 orientation have been crease in stress triaxiality which signies that the ductility decreases
employed for the calibration of the complete model. The static yield with increase in stress triaxiality.
strength, A, in the rst bracket of JC ow stress model (Eqn. 2) has The strain rate sensitivity parameter C employed in the second
been obtained from the engineering stressstrain relationship bracket of the JC ow stress model has been obtained by tting the
(Fig. 1(b)). The strength of the material has been found to be 1372,  pl
expression 1 + C ln with the measured yield stress versus strain
1423 and 1319 MPa respectively at 0, 45 and 90 orientation. The  0
hardening parameters B and n of the rst bracket of the JC ow stress rate curve (Fig. 19(c)). The yield stressstrain rate relationship in-
model were obtained by tting the expression, B ( pl ) , in the mea-
n
dicates that the rate hardening is almost linear in the considered
sured true stressstrain curve by employing OriginPro 8.5.1 software regime. A linear curve has therefore been tted with the experi-
(Fig. 19(a)). mental data points as per the requirement of the model. The strain
The stress-triaxiality parameters, D1, D2 and D3 of the equiva- rate dependent damage parameter D4 has been obtained by tting
lent failure strain (Eqn. 5), were obtained by tting the expression the expression of the second bracket of the equivalent fracture strain,
 pl
of the second bracket of fracture strain model, D1 + D2 exp D3 m 1 + D4 ln  , with the observed true fracture strainstrain rate
0

with the observed true failure strainstress triaxiality curve relationship indicating decrement of fracture strain with increase
(Fig. 19(b)). The true failure strain of the specimen was obtained in strain rate (Fig. 19(d)) which has been assumed to be linear.
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164 157

Table 4
Material parameters of Armox 500T steel. 3000
Description Notation Numerical value
2400

True stress (MPa)

Modulus of elasticity E (N/m2) 201 109
Poissons ratio 0.33
Density (kg/m3) 7850 1800
Yield stress constant A (N/m2) 1372.488 106
Strain hardening constant B (N/m2) 835.022 106 Experimental results
n 0.2467 1200
Viscous effect C 0.0617 Mesh size - 0.05 mm
Thermal sensitivity m 0.84
600 Mesh size - 0.07 mm
Reference strain rate 0 1 s1
Melting temperature melt (K) 1800 Mesh size - 0.09 mm
Transition temperature transition (K) 293 0
Fracture strain constant D1 0.04289 0 0.15 0.3 0.45 0.6 0.75
D2 2.1521
D3 2.7575 True strain
D4 0.0066
D5 0.86 Fig. 21. Comparison of experimental and numerical stressstrain curves of Armox
Inelastic heat fraction 0.9 500T steel obtained under tension at 950 s1 strain rate.
Specic heat Cp (J/kg K) 455
Thermal conductivity K (W/m k) 47

The thermal sensitivity parameter m in the third bracket of the
JC ow stress model has been obtained by tting the correspond-
ing expression 1 T m with the observed yield strength versus
temperature curve (Fig. 19(e)). A prerequisite stress of 1456 MPa,
corresponding to the 200 C temperature, was considered in order
to obtain the best t. The temperature dependent fracture strain
parameter D5 has been obtained by tting the corresponding ex-
pression of the fracture strain model, 1 + D5T , with the observed
failure strain versus homologous temperature curve (see Fig. 19(f)).
The calibrated material parameters of JC model for Armox 500T steel
are presented in Table 4.
6. Validation of Armox 500T steel parameters
The calibrated material parameters of the JC model have been
validated by simulating the high strain rate material tests per-
formed on split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) apparatus. The nite
element simulations for the material tests performed under tension
at strain rate 850 and 950 s1 were carried out on ABAQUS/Explicit
code. The axisymmetric model of the tension specimen was devel-
oped in accordance with its actual geometry (diameter 3 mm and
gauge length 10 mm) (see Fig. 20). The calibrated JC model was em-
ployed to assign the ow and fracture behavior of the Armox 500T
steel (see Table 4). The specimens were considered xed at one end
Actual FEM
while the other end was under the application of pressure in the
direction opposite to the material. The pressure versus time curve
was assigned with respect to the corresponding strain rate. The dis-
cretization of the geometric model was carried out using four node
axisymmetric quadrilateral elements with stiffness hourglass control,
and three degrees of freedom at each node. The mesh conver-
gence was also studied for the simulations performed for the
validation of material test. The element size in the specimen ge-
ometry was varied as 0.09 mm 0.09 mm, 0.07 mm 0.07 mm and
0.05 mm 0.05 mm. The true stressstrain relationship obtained by
numerically simulating the tension tests with different element sizes
considered has been compared with the corresponding experimen-
tal results at 950 s1 strain rate (see Fig. 21). A typical simulation
with element size 0.05 mm 0.05 mm and total number of 85 032
elements in the whole specimen took approximately 450 CPU
minutes. The actual and simulated stressstrain curves have been
found to have close correlation with respect to ow and fracture
behavior. As such, no signicant inuence of the element size has
been found on the numerical predictions. The contours of the normal
stresses have also been plotted in the specimen at the same strain
rate, 950 s1 (see Fig. 22(a)(c)). The ow of stress throughout the
specimen could be seen at various time steps before and after the
development of necking. The stress concentration in the necked
region is clearly visible at the onset of fracture. The variation in tem-
perature of the specimen is also plotted at various time steps in
Fig. 22 (d)(f). The temperature of the specimen became substan-
tial only after the formation of neck and reached maximum, 1197 K,
at the onset of fracture. The actual and predicted fractured diam-
eter of the specimen was found to be 2.32 and 2.08 mm respectively.

7. Calibration of API projectiles

The API projectile material has been characterized by obtain-

ing all the JohnsonCook model parameters by curve tting through
least square method. The yield strength, A, in the rst bracket of
the JC ow stress, Eqn. 2, was obtained from the engineering stress
strain curve (Fig. 12). The strain hardening parameters B and n of
the rst bracket of the JC ow stress model were obtained by tting
the expression B ( pl ) with the true stressstrain curve (Fig. 23(a)).
n

The stress triaxiality parameters, D1, D2 and D3 of the JC failure strain

model, Eqn. 5, were obtained by tting the expression
D + D exp D m
3 with the measured true failure strainstress

1 2

triaxiality curve (Fig. 23(b)). An exponential curve has been tted

with experimentally obtained data points using the software
Fig. 20. Geometry of the axisymmetric tension test specimen of Armox 500T steel. OriginPro. The model accurately tted the experimental data points
158 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

(a) (b) (c)

(d (e (f

Fig. 22. (a)(c) Contour plots of normal stress in Pascal and (d)(f) temperature in Kelvin at different time intervals in the tension test specimens of Armox 500T steel at
950 s1 strain rate.

representing exponential decrement of fracture strain with in- Table 5

crease in stress triaxiality. Material parameters of API projectile.
The strain rate sensitivity parameter C in the second bracket of Description Notation Numerical value
the JC ow stress was obtained by tting the corresponding ex- Modulus of elasticity E (N/m2) 200 109
 pl Poissons ratio 0.3
pression of the second bracket, 1 + C ln , with the measured
 0 Density (Kg/m3) 7850
yield stress versus strain rate curve (Fig. 23 (c)). Due to limited Yield stress constant A (N/m2) 1657.71 106
Strain hardening constant B (N/m2) 20855.6 106
number of material specimens and the limitation of the experi-
n 0.651
mental facility, the strain rate sensitivity of projectile could not be Viscous effect C 0.0076
studied corresponding to the entire range of strain rate which may Thermal sensitivity m 0.35
be developed in the material during the perforation process. It should Reference strain rate 0 1 s1
be noted, however, that the material has been found to be insen- Melting temperature melt (K) 1800
Transition temperature transition (K) 293
sitive to strain rate such that the strength has been found Fracture strain constant D1 0.0301
approximately identical in the considered strain rate regime (104 D2 0.0142
s110+3 s1) (see Fig. 16). The strain rate sensitivity parameter C has D3 2.192
been calibrated to be 0.0076, indicating insignicant inuence of D4 0.0
D5 0.35
strain rate on the equivalent stress. Eventually, the strain rate de-
Inelastic heat fraction 0.9
pendent fracture strain parameter, D4, has been assumed to be zero Specic heat Cp (J/kg K) 455
for the projectile material. Thermal conductivity K (W/m k) 47
The thermal sensitivity parameter m given in the third bracket
of the JC ow stress was obtained by tting the corresponding ex-
pression 1 T m with the actual yield stresstemperature curve
(Fig. 23(d)). The nonlinear curve tted as per the requirement of the 8. Ballistic experimentation
model has been found to closely represent the observed pattern of
the decrement of ow stress with increasing temperature. The tem- The ballistic experiments were carried out by ring the 7.62 API
perature dependent fracture strain parameter D5 was obtained by projectiles through sniper rie on 8 mm thick Armox 500T steel plate
tting the expression of the third bracket of fracture strain model, targets placed at 10 m distance from the rie, and by 12.7 API pro-
1 + D5T , with the measured fracture straintemperature curve jectiles through air defense gun on 10 mm thick Armox 500T steel

(Fig. 23 (e)) in accordance with the constitutive relation. The ma- plate targets placed at a distance of 15 m from the gun. The mass
terial parameters of the API projectile thus obtained are enlisted of 7.62 API projectile was 5.5 grams and that of 12.7 API projectile
in Table 5. was 30.06 grams. Both of these projectiles were red at a constant
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164 159

0.038
2400
Johnson-Cook model
2000 Experiments

True stress (MPa)

0.036

Fracture strain
1600

1200 0.034
Experiments
800 Johnson-Cook model
0.032
400
(a) (b)
0 0.03
0 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005 0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5
plastic strain Stress triaxiality

2600
Engineerg stress (MPa) Experiments (c)
2500 Johnson-Cook Model

2400

2300

2200

2100
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Log (Strain rate)

2500 2
Experiments Experiments
Johnson-Cook Model 1.75
2000 Johnson-Cook model
Engineering stress (MPa)

1.5
Fracture strain

1500 1.25
1
1000
0.75
0.5
500
(d) 0.25 (e)
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Homologus temperature Homologus temperature

Fig. 23. Calibration of JohnsonCook model for API projectile material (a) true stressstrain relation, (b) fracture strain as a function of stress triaxiality, (c) engineering
stress as a function of strain rate, (d) engineering stress as a function of temperature and (e) fracture strain as a function of temperature.

incidence velocity of about 830 m/s at normal incidence. The x- respect to the projectile trajectory. The Photron Fastcam-APX RS high-
tures for holding the target as well as the gun were made of speed video camera system was also employed to measure the
structural steel. The square target plates of span 500 mm 500 mm residual projectile velocity and to record the perforation phenom-
were held onto these xtures with the help of heavy nuts and bolts enon. The camera was operated at about 9000 frames per second
and tightened effectively to enable the xed boundary. The target frequency at a resolution of 640 480 pixels.
holding xture could be suitably adjusted in horizontal and verti-
cal plane in order to enable the adjustment of the impact location 9. Numerical simulation for ballistic evaluation
on the target surface.
The impact and the residual velocities of the projectile were mea- The Armox 500T steel targets of thicknesses 8 and 10 mm were
sured with the help of infrared optical sensors. Two such infrared modeled as three dimensional deformable continuum on ABAQUS/
emitters were placed at 6 and 8 m from the muzzle of the sniper CAE. The actual span of the target was 500 mm 500 mm; however,
rie and at 11 and 13 m from the muzzle of the air defense gun. in order to economize the computational problem, a reduced span
Two more emitters, each at 2 and 4 m behind the target, were placed of 200 mm 200 mm was modeled. It was observed during the bal-
to measure the residual velocity. The projectiles were recovered after listic tests that the inuence of the impact does not spread beyond
perforation of the target with the help of the recovery platform of this region. The projectiles were also modeled as three dimension-
the cushion pad bundles. The alignment of the gun, optical devices, al deformable body with the shank diameter, shank length, total
target and the projectile catcher was carefully maintained with length and length of ogival nose 6.06, 20.75, 28.4, and 7.65 mm
160 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

900 850
0.55 mm 0.55 mm
800 0.45 mm 0.45 mm

Residual velocity (m/s)

Residual velocity (m/s)

800
700 0.35 mm 0.35 mm
0.25 mm 750 0.25 mm
600
0.2 mm 0.2 mm
500 700
400
650
300 (a) (b)
200 600
0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80 100
Time ( s) Time ( s)

Fig. 24. Residual velocity of (a) 7.62 and (b) 12.7 API projectile at different mesh congurations.

respectively for 7.62 API projectile, and 10.9, 24.4, 52.6 and 19.1 mm
respectively for 12.7 API projectile. As discussed above, the steel core
of the projectile has been modeled for all the nite element simu-
lations, assuming that the brass jacket was stripped off and had no
inuence on the perforation process (Borvik et al. [30]). The ow
and fracture behavior of the target as well as projectile material were
modeled employing the JC model calibrated in the present study.
The target was meshed with eight node linear hexahedral ele-
ments with hourglass control. The mesh sensitivity for the target
was studied by varying the element size in the impact zone as 0.55,
0.45, 0.35, 0.25 and 0.2 mm3, giving 15, 18, 23, 32 and 40 ele-
ments at the thickness of 8 mm thick target and 19, 23, 29, 40 and
50 elements at the thickness of 10 mm thick target respectively. The
projectiles were impacted on the target corresponding to each mesh
conguration, at incidence velocity 835 m/s, and the residual ve-
locities were found to be 424, 397, 345, 329 and 328 m/s respectively
for 7.62 API projectile and 682, 668, 650, 644 and 643 m/s respec-
tively for 12.7 API projectile (see Fig. 24(a) and (b) respectively). Thus,
the residual velocity of 7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles converged cor-
responding to element size 0.25 mm3 and 0.35 mm3 respectively.
The residual velocities thus obtained have been found to have close
agreement with the actual results (see Fig. 25(a) and (b) respec-
tively). The hexahedral elements of 1 mm3 were employed to
discretize the projectile. The contact between the projectile and target
was modeled by employing the kinematic contact algorithm avail-
able in ABAQUS. The projectile was considered as master and the
through thickness contact region of the target as node based slave
surface. A coecient of friction of 0.02 was assumed between the
projectile and target (Borvik et al. [30,44]). It should be noted that
the friction between the projectile and target is dependent upon
the normal pressure, sliding velocity and temperature between the
surfaces and as such does not remain constant. However, the ac-
curate determination of the coecient of friction and its dependence
on different parameters during high speed penetration is highly com-
plicated. Krafft [45] computed the energy loss during ballistic
penetration by measuring the torsional adhesion of spinning pro-
jectile during penetration through torsion-type Hopkinson bar by
assuming that the friction resisting rotation is equivalent to that re-
sisting axial penetration. It was concluded that the total energy loss
due to friction during longitudinal motion is not more than 3% of
the total energy loss of the projectile. Bowden and Freitag [46]
studied the friction between the metal surfaces by trapping a spin-
ning ball between symmetrically arranged at plates. It was
concluded that the sliding friction decreases with increase in the
velocity to vanishingly small. In the present study, the velocity of
the projectile is considerably high; therefore, the assumption of a
constant coecient of friction is quite reasonable. A typical nite
element model for projectile and target is shown in Fig. 26.
10. Results and discussion
The experimental and the numerical ballistic results for 8 mm
thick target against 7.62 API projectiles are presented in Table 6. The
residual velocity of the projectile has been predicted within 5% de-
viation from the experimental results. The projectile failed the target
by making a circular hole, producing minor spalling of material
around the hole and a bulge at the rear surface (Fig. 27). The di-
ameter of the hole was 8.1 mm and the height of rear surface bulge
4.2 mm. The size of hole, bulging of the target at the rear surface
and the erosion of material from the front surface have been quite
accurately reproduced through numerical simulations (Fig. 27(a) and
(b)). Although spalling of the material at the front surface ob-
served during experiments could not be exactly replicated, the high
stresses developed in that region during perforation process

700
440 Numerical results Numerical results
Experimental results Experimental results
Residual velocity (m/s)

420
Residual velocity (m/s)

680
400
380 660
360
340 640
320
(a) (b)
300 620
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Number of elements Number of elements (mm)

Fig. 25. Mesh convergence for (a) 8 mm and (b) 10 mm thick Armox 500T steel target.
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164 161

Section X-X

X X

Plan Enlarged view of the impact region

Fig. 26. Typical nite element model of Armox 500T steel target and 12.7 API projectile.

Table 6 provided a fairly accurate assessment of the material behavior

Ballistic resistance of 8 mm thick Armox 500T steel target against 7.62 API projectile. (Fig. 27(a)).
Impact velocity (m/s) Residual velocity (m/s) The actual and the predicted residual projectile velocities of 12.7
Experimental results Numerical results API projectile are presented in Table 7 as a result of impact on 10 mm
thick Armox 500T steel target. The residual velocities are repro-
823.62 334.28 349.6
828.02 343.74 358.1
duced numerically within 5% deviation from the actual results. The
projectile made a circular hole with diameter of 13.12 mm,

Experiments Numerical simulation

(a)

(b)

Fig. 27. Failure modes of (a) front and (b) rear surface of 8 mm thick Armox 500T steel target against 7.62 API projectile.
162 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164

Table 7 Table 8
Ballistic resistance of 10 mm thick Armox 500T steel target against 12.7 API projectile. Determination of ballistic limit of 8 mm thick target against 7.62 API projectile.

Impact velocity (m/s) Residual velocity (m/s) Impact Residual Model Ballistic
velocity (m/s) velocity (m/s) constants limit (m/s)
Experimental results Numerical results
Numerical RechtIpson a p
841.89 686.37 708.99
results model results
835.21 Perforated 697.24
831.67 663.82 691.60 823.62 358.10 373.82 1.0 1.8 706.5
760 229.37 237.38
730 161.30 148.93
720 131.40 109.12
produced a small bulge at the rear surface of target and also caused 716 101.20 89.65
nominal spalling of material from the front surface, (Fig. 28). The 710 39.20 51.38
703 0.00 0.00
diameter of hole has been exactly predicted through the numeri-
cal simulations and the spalling of material around the hole has also
been reproduced (Fig. 28(a)). At the rear surface, however, no sign
of scabbing was observed (Fig. 28(b)), either through experiments
or nite element simulations. The failure mode at the rear surface where vi , vr and vbl are initial, residual and ballistic limit veloci-
also indicated the signs of hole enlargement and this behavior was ty, and a and p are the model constants. The least square method
conrmed through numerical simulations. was used in order to obtain the best t of the model with the nu-
The numerical simulations were also carried out at different in- merical results for calibrating parameters a and p. For 8 mm thick
cidence velocities for obtaining the residual projectile velocities and target against 7.62 API projectile, parameters a and p were found
eventually the ballistic limit of 8 and 10 mm thick targets (see to be 1 and 1.8, respectively, and for 10 mm thick target against 12.7
Tables 8 and 9 respectively). The ballistic limit velocity, V50, was cal- API projectile, 1 and 1.99, respectively. The calculated and numer-
culated as the average of the highest projectile velocity not giving ically simulated residual projectile velocities have been found to have
perforation and the lowest projectile velocity giving complete per- close correlation for both the targets employed in the present study
foration of the target. The ballistic limit has been found to be (see Fig. 29).
706.5 m/s for 8 mm thick target against 7.62 API projectile and
501 m/s for 10 mm thick target against 12.7 API projectile.
After the computation of ballistic limit velocity, the calculation 11. Conclusions
for residual projectile velocity corresponding to a given incidence
velocity has also been carried out using RechtIpson model (see The material behavior of Armox 500T steel and armor piercing
Tables 8 and 9). The residual velocities were calculated based on the incendiary (API) projectiles has been characterized under varying
following empirical model originally proposed by Recht and Ipson stress states, strain rate and temperature. The results of the mate-
[47], rial characterization enabled the calibration of the JohnsonCook
ow and fracture model. The ballistic trials have been conducted
1 on Armox 500T steel targets against 7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles
vr = a ( vip vblp ) p (6)
and the results thus obtained reproduced numerically on ABAQUS/

Experiments Numerical simulation

(a)

(b)

Fig. 28. Failure modes of (a) front and (b) rear surface of 10 mm thick Armox 500T steel target against 12.7 API projectile.
 M.A. Iqbal et al. / International Journal of Impact Engineering 96 (2016) 146164 163

Table 9 the residual projectile velocities for given incident velocities were
Determination of ballistic limit of 10 mm thick target against 12.7 API projectile. also calculated by the RechtIpson model. These showed a close
Impact Residual Model Ballistic agreement with the values obtained through nite element
velocity (m/s) velocity (m/s) constants limit (m/s) computations.
Numerical RechtIpson a p
results model results Acknowledgment
831.67 691.60 663.83 1.0 1.99 501
700 491.90 488.88 The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support pro-
600 337.25 330.15 vided by ARMREB, DRDO through the research grant no. ARMREB/
550 224.03 226.93
520 146.20 139.28
MAA/2011/127 for carrying out the present study.
510 104.34 95.39
505 66.30 63.44 References
497 0.00 0.00

Explicit nite element code using the calibrated material models
for the target and the projectile.
The fracture strain of Armox 500T steel material decreased from
1.0 to 0.05 as the stress triaxiality increased from 0.33 to 1.95, in-
dicating a decrease in ductility with increase in stress triaxiality.
The strain rate in the range 1.6 1043.3 102 s1 showed insig-
nicant inuence on material behavior; however, as it increased to
850950 s1, the material showed high strain rate sensitivity. The
yield strength increased from 1365 to 1405 MPa with increase in
strain rate from 1.6 104 to 3.3 102 s1; however, at 950 s1 strain
rate, it reached 2207 MPa.
The strength of Armox 500T steel increased slightly when the
temperature increased up to 200 C due to blue brittle effect.
However, with further increase in temperature, 300900 C, the
strength decreased while the fracture strain increased consis-
tently. The specimens underwent signicant elongation, 54%, at
900 C temperature.
The projectile material underwent insignicant plastic defor-
mation under tension and experienced sudden failure at the ultimate
stress, 2300 MPa. The projectile material has also been found to be
insensitive to stress triaxiality and strain rate; however, it de-
scribed high thermal sensitivity. The strength of material decreased
and the fracture strain increased consistently with increase in
temperature.
The nite element simulations have been carried out for com-
puting residual velocities of the 7.62 and 12.7 API projectiles by
impacting these on 8 and 10 mm thick targets respectively at given
impact velocities. The computed residual velocities and modes of
deformations of both the plates matched the experiments very well.
The ballistic limit of these targets was computed numerically and
1000
8 mm thick - Numerical results - 7.62 API
8 mm thick - Recht-Ipson model - 7.62 API
10 mm thick - Numerical results - 12.7 API
800
10 mm thick - Recht-Ipson model - 12.7 API
Residual velocity (m/s)
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