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Procedia Engineering 173 (2017) 259 – 263

11th International Symposium on Plasticity and Impact Mechanics, Implast 2016

Finite Element Simulation of Impact on Metal Plate

Manish Kumar Bhuarya*, Mayank Singh Rajput , Arpan Gupta
School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi 175005, India

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of bullet with aluminum alloy plate fixed on all sides. Simulations were carried out to study effect
of bullet impact angle and thickness of aluminium alloy plates. These simulations were performed using Finite Element Method
implemented through Ansys Workbench. The target plate was struck at 0°, 15°, 30° and 45° obliquely and the impact velocity
was 830 m/s in all tests. The results showed a critical oblique angle, which comes out to be 45°, at which the penetration process
changes from perforation to ricochet. The other simulation was done to determine the thickness of the plate at which the
penetration process changes from perforation to embedment. Simulation was done for plate thickness of 2 mm, 6 mm, 10 mm, 15
mm, 20 mm and 30 mm. It was observed that for thickness of 18 mm and above, complete penetration does not occur.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility ofthe organizing committee of Implast 2016.
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of Implast 2016

Keywords: Plate; impact; bullet; finite element simulation.

1. Introduction

Combat soldiers operate in a diverse range of operational environments and injury threats. The need for study of
protection against small arms and light weapons is very important both from a civilian and a military point of view.
Most of the ballistic studies consider only normal impact where the angle between velocity vector of projectile and
normal vector of target plane is zero. But in most cases impacts are at some angle. In this research work, the effect of
bullet impact on aluminium alloy plate in different conditions is studied. Two simulation were done by impacting
7.62 x63 mm NATO Ball (with a soft lead core) bullet with the velocity of 830 m/s on aluminium alloy plate of
thickness 6mm and 500 mm x 500 mm cross section. First targets were struck at 0o, 15o, 30o, 45o and 60o obliquity,
and critical angle is determined. In second simulation target were struck with varying thickness of 2 mm, 6 mm, 10

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: manish_kumar_bhuarya@students.iitmandi.ac.in

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of Implast 2016
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.12.009
260 Manish Kumar Bhuarya et al. / Procedia Engineering 173 (2017) 259 – 263

mm, 15 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm. It was seen that bullet penetrated the plates of thickness less than 15 mm and angle
45o, above that it does not penetrate.

Borvik et al. [1] has studied impact on 20 mm thick aluminum plate with NATO ball and APM2. The studies
were conducted experimentally and numerically. Further the impact velocity was 830 m/s. The initial and residual
velocities were measured using laser based optical devices. It was shown that at critical angles was less than 600 for
which perforation was changed to embedment. The same author has also studied resistance of five different high
strength steel plates to small arm projective impact [2]. Multilayer insulation were also studied by White et al. [3]
against hypervelocity bullet impact. Iqbal et al. [4] has characterized mild steel at various stress and strain rate.
Material properties have been used to perform numerical ballistic simulation of 12 and 16 mm thick target against
API projectiles. The same author has also studied effect of projectile nose shape, impact velocity and target thickness
on different types of plates [5], [6]. Manes et al. [7] has studied experimentally and numerically the effect of low
velocity impact on sandwich panels. It is shown that such structures very critical to low velocity impact. The same
author has also studied impact of small calibre bullets with aluminium plate.

2. Simulation of 7.62 mm soft core bullet impact on plate at different angles

In this simulation a 7.62 mm soft core bullet assigned with velocity 835 m/s is impacted on aluminium. The material
model used for bullet and plate is available in standard AUTODYN material library. Fixed boundary condition is
applied on the edges of the plate. Initial velocity of 835 m/s is given to the bullet in z-direction. Results were
obtained for plate at different angle of 0o, 15o, 30o, 45o and 60o.

Table 1. Meshing statistics for different geometries.

Geometry Nodes Elements
Bullet 1787 8315
Plate 3439 3366
Total 5226 11681

Fig. 1. (a) CAD model of bullet.

 Manish Kumar Bhuarya et al. / Procedia Engineering 173 (2017) 259 – 263 261

Fig. 2 Mesh of bullet and target plate

Fig. 3 Simulations showing bullet impacting the plate at 150 and 450.

Fig. 4 Maximum Equivalent stress graph for different angles of impact

It was seen that bullet penetrated the plates at 0°, 15° and 30° angle but got bounced off at 45° angle. The inclination
angle of plate has effect on the maximum stress developed in the area. When the inclination is increased it is seen
that the maximum stress developed is decreased. Due to which fracture of material does not occur after a certain
angle. That is why there is no penetration of bullet after 45° inclination angle of plate with respect to bullet.

3. Simulation of impact of 7.62 mm NATO Ball bullet at different thickness plates

The study of bullet impact on plate with different thickness is obtained by doing finite element simulations on
aluminium alloy plates with 500 mm x 500 mm cross-section. The bullet used is 7.62 mm NATO ball bullet. The
simulations were done for bullet striking plates of thickness 2 mm, 6 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm. The
edges of the plates are given fixed constraint. In this simulation bullet impact on flat plate of varying thickness 2mm
to 30mm. The velocity of bullet is 830 m/s in x-direction. We see that the bullet penetrates the plate at thickness of
15mm and below. Bullet is not able to penetrate the plate with thickness greater than 15mm.
262 Manish Kumar Bhuarya et al. / Procedia Engineering 173 (2017) 259 – 263

Fig. 5 Finite element simulations for bullet impacting plate with different thickness. (a) 6 mm, (b) 15 mm, (c) 20 mm and (d) 30 mm.

Maximum equivalent stress in plate was studied for various cases. A plot of maximum equivalent stress in plate as a
function of various thicknesses is shown in Fig. 6. The plot shows that maximum equivalent stress happens in the
case of plate with thickness 20 mm.

Fig. 6 Maximum equivalent stress in plate as a function of plate thickness.

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4. Conclusion
In this work, numerical simulations have been carried out of bullet impacting metal plate. The simulations have been
carried out using finite element method implemented through ansys. Two types of simulations have been performed.
In one case the angle of impact of bullet on plate has been varied. In this it has been found that beyond 45 0, the
bullet is not able to penetrate the plate as the stress developed has reduced. In the second type of simulation, plate
thickness is varied, while the bullet impacts normally. In this study it is found the bullet is not able to penetrate a
plate with thickness more than 15 mm.

References

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