International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 1128–1135

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International Journal of Impact Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijimpeng

Impact resistance of a rectangular polycarbonate armor plate subjected to

single and multiple impacts
Qasim H. Shah*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 50728 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In the present work the plastic deformation of a thin rectangular polycarbonate armor plate subjected to
Received 3 September 2008 single and multiple impacts was investigated in detail. The impacts were conducted on a horizontal and
Received in revised form diagonal path to explore the plate vulnerability against the in-coming single and multiple projectiles
8 November 2008
striking at various locations. Single impacts revealed the overall trend in plate dent sizes and thickness
Accepted 5 December 2008
reductions on the horizontal and diagonal paths. Results were compared with previous research [Shah
Available online 14 December 2008
QH, Abakr YA. Effect of distance from the support on the penetration mechanism of clamped circular
polycarbonate armor plates. International Journal of Impact Engineering 2008;35:1244–50] conducted
Keywords:
Multiple impacts on circular armor plate for validation purposes. The single impact data scatter necessitated to conduct
Rectangular armor plate repeated impact tests at reduced number of locations to search for a definite answer for the possible
Polycarbonate failure process in the vicinity of the clamped edges of the plate. An accelerated plastic deformation
Thickness reduction resulting in early perforation was found to occur in the diagonal plate corner compared to the plate
Dent depth center impact position or close to a straight clamped edge. Multiple impact results presented can be
LSDYNA significantly helpful in designing rectangular shape polycarbonate armor plates to enhance safety.
LSDYNA was used to simulate the impact event for the plate midpoint, the horizontal edge, and the
diagonal edge. The results show a close agreement with the experimental work.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction impressive investigation regarding the Multiple-Hit-Criterion

Polycarbonate is a highly ductile material at room temperature
and undergoes large plastic deformation when loaded statically or
dynamically. The deformation in a static loading case is larger than
in the dynamic loading case because under dynamic loading the
failure may occur at a smaller plastic strain. Back plane spall and
fragmentation may not pose a difficulty to the polycarbonate armor
plate. Polycarbonate is extensively used in some bullet proof vests
and armored vehicle due to its high ductility, transparent nature,
and comparatively light weight. As a general practice most of the
armored plates are tested by subjecting them to a plate mid-point
impact but there had been very few studies where the protection
capability has been investigated in detail based upon the impact
location on a particular shaped armor plate [1,2]. In [2] it was found
that for circular polycarbonate armor plate the thickness near the
clamped edge reduced by 53% after impact compared to its original
thickness before impact.
Also a 10% decrease in thickness was recorded when compared
to the thickness at the plate mid-point after impact. A very
* Tel.: þ60 (0) 3 6196 4472; fax: þ60 (0) 3 6196 4477.
E-mail address: hqasim@iiu.edu.my
evaluation procedure for a patterned armor consisting of ceramic
tiles has been discussed in detail in [3]. It has been mentioned that
because of the weight and performance requirements none of the
armor would defeat the threat of a continuous weapon fire.
Therefore an armor should be designed which is able to sustain the
automatic weapon fire that can land at least 10 rounds at one point
or in its vicinity. Multiple impact damage to the aircraft fuselage lap
joints and their repair procedure has been discussed in [4].
Composite material manufacturing techniques are discussed based
upon their multiple impact performance at low projectile velocities
[5] but the focus in this study is only for the impact at the mid-point
of a circular boundary plate.
Impact penetration under repeated impacts of three polymers
including polycarbonate by solid spherical glass particle has been
mentioned in [6] where the impact point is at the plate mid-point.
Kinetic energy dependence of fatigue impact for composite GFRP
plates is investigated in [7]. There is little information available in
the open literature regarding the repeated impacts at the same
location therefore the present work was initiated to gather the
necessary data on polycarbonate armor plates.
Polycarbonate is one of the important transparent polymers
which due to its high ductility can undergo large deformation
before failure by providing high impact resistance [14,15]. A large

0734-743X/$ – see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2008.12.005
 Q.H. Shah / International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 1128–1135 1129

Plate Thickness at Horizontal and

Diagonal Impact Locations
0.95

Plate Thickness (mm)

0.9

0.85

0.8
DIAGONAL
0.75 HORIZONTAL

0.7

0.65
0 15 30 45 60 75
Distance from the Plate Mid-Point (mm)

Fig. 3. Plate thickness on the horizontal (7 impact locations) and diagonal (6 impact
locations) paths.

amount of energy on impact is transformed into heat energy and

internal energy. Therefore to have a deep understanding of poly-
carbonate regarding its ability to absorb energy, mode of defor-
mation, ballistic limitation, and projectile penetration mechanism
are of significant importance [8–12].
Numerical investigation of impact on polymer plate was carried
out using TOCHNOG [13]. It was shown that polymer deformation
under projectile impact is highly localized and should produce very
localized heating. With a rounded projectile, strains are highest
below the nose of the bullet and a highly ductile polymer may
exhibit different failure modes than metals do.
Though some research has been conducted on multiple impact
resistance capability of armor plates of various materials most of
the studies were focused on the plate mid-point investigation, it is
therefore necessary to determine the multiple impact resistance
capability of same materials for varying locations on the square,
rectangular, or other shape armor plates to precisely know the
response. Therefore the present investigation was initiated to fulfill
this requirement.
Fig. 1. (a) Polymethylemethacrylate Acrylic (PMMA) clamp used to hold the rectan-
gular plate, and (b) the exposed area of the polycarbonate armor plate with impact
locations on the horizontal and diagonal paths (dimensions in mm).
2. Experimental

2.1. Single impact

A 1.5 mm thick polycarbonate armor plate held securely in

a clamp as shown in Fig. 1(a) with exposed area as shown in
Fig. 1(b) was impacted by a 6.32 mm diameter spherical steel
projectile moving at a velocity of 120 m s1. The impact points are
Dent Depth in the Horizontal and
shown as round circles in Fig. 1(b). The impacts were carried out on
Diagonal Impact Locations
2.9 horizontal and diagonal paths on the exposed area of armor plate as
shown in Fig. 1(b).
2.7 The measurements were made for the dent depth and the plate
thickness caused due to impacts. It was observed that the dent
Dent Depth (mm)

2.5 DIAGONAL depths at the impact points near to the clamped boundaries were
2.3 HORIZONTAL
Linear (DIAGONAL)
2.1 Linear Table 1
(HORIZONTAL) Dent depth and plate thickness at impact locations on horizontal and diagonal paths.
1.9
Horizontal path impact 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
locations (mm)
1.7
Dent depth (mm) 1.97 2.34 2.43 2.00 2.21 2.28 2.47
1.5 Plate thickness (mm) 0.92 0.78 0.78 0.78 0.74 0.74 0.69
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Diagonal path impact 0 15 30 45 60 75 –
Distance from the Plate Mid-Point (mm) locations (mm)
Dent depth (mm) 1.97 2.28 2.45 2.08 2.06 2.81 –
Fig. 2. Dent depth obtained on the horizontal (7 impact locations) and diagonal
Plate thickness (mm) 1.01 0.80 0.82 0.78 0.74 0.71 –
(6 impact locations) paths.
1130 Q.H. Shah / International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 1128–1135
Table 2
Dent depth and plate thickness at the reduced impact locations on the horizontal
and diagonal paths.
Horizontal path impact locations (mm) 0 55
Dent depth (mm) 2.09
Plate thickness (mm) 0.91
Diagonal path impact locations (mm) 0 71
Dent depth (mm) 2.09
Plate thickness (mm) 0.98
the highest as shown in Fig. 2. The dent depths caused due to
impacts on the horizontal and diagonal paths are shown in Fig. 2.
The linear dent depth trend for diagonal path impacts is slightly
higher than for the horizontal path impact locations. The plate
thickness reductions at the corresponding impact positions were
also recorded and the results are shown in Fig. 3. Compared to the
dent depth scatter the plate thickness results show a more uniform
and gradual decrease towards the clamped edges of the armor
plate. These results confirmed the overall trend in the armor plate
thickness reductions and increase in dent depth found in [2].
From these results it is obvious that the impact locations near
the clamped edges are more vulnerable to early failure when
subjected to constant velocity projectile impacts. The dent depth
near the diagonal corner is higher when compared to the one near
the vertical edge on the horizontal path but similar results are not
supported by plate thickness results at these two locations which
was assumed to be the result of data scatter for the single impact
events. Table 1 shows the impact locations on the horizontal and
diagonal paths starting from zero at the plate center with corre-
sponding dent depths and plate thicknesses. Further clarifications
were sought at the extreme points very close to the clamped edge
regarding the dent depth and the plate thickness reductions. Three
points on each horizontal and diagonal path were chosen as impact
locations for further investigations. Table 2 shows the reduced
impact locations on the horizontal and diagonal paths for the 3
impact locations starting from zero at the plate center and the
corresponding dent depth and thickness values. Fig. 4 shows the
dent depth results for the above mentioned three locations.
Fig. 5 shows the plate thickness results for (0, 55, 65) mm and (0,
71, 83) mm distances from the plate center on horizontal and
diagonal paths respectively. A significant variation in dent depth
and plate thickness can be observed at corner impact position. For
the extreme points shown in Table 2 at 65 mm located at the end of
the horizontal path the plate thickness reduction was observed to
be 56% and for the last impact point located at the end of diagonal
path (plate corner) recorded a 63% reduction in its thickness which
is a significant decrease in the plate thickness.
Dent Depth at the Impact Locations on the
Horizontal and Diagonal Path for single impact
3.3
Dent Depth (mm)
3
2.7
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Distance from the Plate Mid-Point (mm)
Fig. 4. Dent depth for reduced impact points located on horizontal (0, 55, 65 mm) and
diagonal (0, 71, 83 mm) paths.
Plate Thickness at Horizontal and
Diagonal Impact Locations under Single Impact
1
0.95
PlateThickness (mm)
65
2.02 2.86 0.9
0.83 0.66 0.85
0.8
83 DIAGONAL
0.75
2.15 3.36 HORIZONTAL
0.7
0.79 0.55
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Distance from the Plate Mid-Point (mm)
Fig. 5. Plate thickness for reduced impact points located at (0, 55, 65 mm) on hori-
zontal path and at (0, 71, 83 mm) on diagonal path.
2.2. Multiple impacts
The ballistic limit for the polycarbonate armor plate was found
to be between 125 and 130 m s1. Therefore it was impossible to
conduct multiple impact tests on the same plate without perfora-
tion before a sufficient number of impacts. Multiple impact tests on
three impact locations i.e. plate mid-point, near the vertical straight
clamped edge at the end of horizontal path (65 mm from the plate
center), and in the plate corner which was 84 mm from the plate
center and at the end of diagonal path. The impact points were
named as ‘MIDPOINT’, ‘H-Edge’, and ‘D-Edge’. The projectile was
repeatedly impacted at the above mentioned 3 positions at
a constant velocity of 100 m s1 on individual specimens for three
cases until the plate was perforated.
Under repeated impacts the plate center point did not show
perforation signs until the 6th impact, while the extreme horizontal
and diagonal points experienced perforation at 5th and 3rd impacts
respectively. The three impact points are shown in Fig. 6. In Fig. 6(a)
the specimen for the plate midpoint impact is shown where
massive plastic deformation with plate thinning occurs but no final
material separation after 6 impacts was observed. This is due to the
fact that on every subsequent impact most of the projectile energy
is absorbed by the plate globally in deforming the plate laterally. In
Fig. 6(b) the failure of the dent is shown at fourth projectile impact.
The crack mouth is slightly tilted to one side showing the effect of
straight edge constraint. In all single or multiple impact cases the
projectile bounces back retaining some of its kinetic energy.
Moreover after first impact the crater generated in the poly-
carbonate plate springs back to some extent due to material elastic
recovery and the dent size reduces such that the same projectile
could not settle down into the crater but sits at the crater edges. At
the second impact some of the kinetic energy of the projectile is
spent in deforming the circular ring edge of the crater and
depending upon the velocity it may reach the crater bottom. It was
further noted that the plate material may not break until it had
reached a certain plate thickness which ranges between 0.4 and
0.5 mm. The thinning of the plate is accelerated tremendously
when in impact point is heavily constrained as shown in Fig. 6(c). In
DIAGONAL
Fig. 6(c) the constrained edge can be seen making a round edge on
the right side of the impact location. The edge material also
HORIZONTAL
underwent shearing along the edge without material separation. In
this figure the material separation occurred at third impact. A cap
like circular piece of material can be seen separated from the plate.
80 90
The material separation process observed in Fig. 6 carries great
significance from the point of view of material failure under high
strain rate. It needs further investigation to understand the failure
process which is beyond the scope of the present research work.
 Q.H. Shah / International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 1128–1135
Fig. 6. (a) Midpoint-6 hits no perforation, (b) horizontal edge-perforation at 4th hit, and (c) diagonal edge-perforation at 3rd hit.
The dent depth obtained from the multiple impact tests on the
above mentioned three points prior to perforation is shown in
Fig. 7. The perforated specimen results are excluded as they do not
fall under the dent depth category.
The plate thickness at the corresponding impact points is shown
in Fig. 8. An unusual rise in plate thickness for two impacts at the
horizontal edge is due to scatter which can be ignored. A significant
trend can be viewed in case of a steep plate thickness variation at
the plate corner impact point. It is clear that for a constant velocity
projectile the plate clamped corner is the most vulnerable location
for perforation. As the present investigation was carried out on
a plate with a round corner of 10 mm radius, it is expected that
a sharp corner plate poses an even higher risk factor for single and
multiple impacts in the plate corner.
3. Material properties
The stress–strain curve at various strain rates for polycarbonate
used in the present study is shown in Fig. 9. These results were
obtained from tensile tests on polycarbonate coupons cut from the
same plates that were later subjected to impact tests. A low
capacity polymer testing machine was used to conduct the tensile
tests. At low loading rate the strain to failure is observed to be large
but for dynamic loads the strain to failure is smaller. As is evident
from the stress–strain curves the elastic modulus at higher strain
rates increases significantly unlike most metals. These results were
obtained for a similar investigation for an earlier work. The curve
with the largest failure strain was obtained from the static tensile
test. The rest of the curves were obtained for higher strain rates. As
the strain rate increases the yield strength increases but for poly-
mers it remain constant after a certain strain rate.
4. Static dent tests: constraint effect
To determine the difference in response due to static loading of
a rectangular armor plate a cylindrical indenter with a semi-
spherical head was used to conduct static denting tests for the
Dent Depth for Multiple Impacts
3.5
Dent Depth (mm)
3
2.5
2 H-EDGE
1.5
1 0.3
1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of Impacts
Fig. 7. Dent depth for repeated impacts at plate midpoint, at the end of horizontal
path, and at the end of diagonal paths.
1131
above mentioned three cases until the plate failure. The load–
displacement history curves are shown in Fig. 10. Comparing the
three cases it can be seen that under static loading conditions
a higher load would be required to obtain a constant dent defor-
mation for a point located in the plate corner at the end of diagonal
path. This is due to the fact that the corner point is subjected to
larger constraints. In the dynamic impact tests same constraints
would accelerate the failure process due to large shear stresses [16]
at high strain rates.
Table 4 shows the load required to cause a constant displace-
ment at plate mid-point, horizontal edge, and the plate corner
locations. Compared to the plate mid-point the horizontal edge
location requires a 6.7 times higher load to cause a constant
displacement of 2.66 mm. The load required to cause same
displacement is more than 11 times higher. This shows the effect of
the constraint posed by firmly clamped edges of the armor plate.
5. Impact simulation
It was found that carrying out multiple impact simulations
would be a very complex piece of work at this stage because of
difficulties involved due to material property variations after each
impact. This was found during tensile test investigation on poly-
carbonate specimens where the specimens were loaded, unloaded,
and re-loaded few times before failure. The data showed that for
each loading, unloading, and re-loading improved the yield
strength and the elastic modulus of the polycarbonate material.
This type of material model is yet non-existent in the existing
explicit finite element programs. Therefore LSDYNA was used to
simulate only the single impact event for the polycarbonate armor
plate at its midpoint, end position of horizontal path, and at the end
of diagonal path i.e. in the inside plate corner. In a 3-D finite
element analysis model 69,813 shell elements were used to model
the polycarbonate plate while 57,769 solid elements were used to
model a spherical rigid steel projectile. The material model used for
the target plate was *MAT_PLASTIC_KINEMATIC with a bi-linear
Plate Thickness variations for
multiple impacts
1.1
1
Thickness (mm)
0.9
0.8
MIDPT
MIDPOINT 0.7
0.6
H-EDGE D-EDGE
0.5
D-EDGE
0.4
1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of Impacts
Fig. 8. Plate thickness for repeated impacts at plate midpoint, at the end of horizontal
path, and at the end of diagonal path.
1132 Q.H. Shah / International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 1128–1135

Stress-Strain Curves for PC at Different Strain Rates Table 3

80 Material properties of polycarbonate under static conditions.

70 Density (kg/m3) 1200.00

60 Yield strength (MPa) 62.00
Stress (MPa)

Elastic modulus (MPa) 1500.00

50 Poisson’s ratio 0.37
40 Tangent modulus (MPa) 32.00
0.45 /s Failure strain 1.5
30
2.4 /s
20 4.3 /s
10 10.47 /s Table 4
0 Static load required to cause a constant dent deformation at three locations.
2 7 12 17 22 27 32 37 42
Static dent location Deformation (mm) Load (N)
Percentage Strain
Plate midpoint 2.66 40.0
Fig. 9. The stress–strain curves of polycarbonate at various strain rates. Horizontal edge 2.66 268.0
Diagonal edge 2.66 447.0

trend with an elastic modulus of 2300 MPa and a Poisson’s ratio of

0.37. A tangent modulus of 32 MPa was used to incorporate the
plastic deformation until the material failure under a plastic failure
strain. The polycarbonate material density used was 1200 kg m3.
The steel ball projectile was modeled as a rigid material with
a density of 7800 kg m3 with an elastic modulus of 200 GPa, and
a Poisson’s ratio of 0.30. The yield strength for polycarbonate was
considered to be 65 MPa. Although the material properties used
were obtained at lower strain rates than the actual material prop-
erties that are required to be conducted at higher strain rates [17]
that are encountered in bullet impacts, the results still closely agree
with the experimental investigations.
In [13] it has been shown that it is possible to use metal plas-
ticity behavior for thermoplastics in numerical investigation.
Therefore the usage of J2 plasticity (*MAT_PLASTIC_KINEMATIC) can
be justified. The failure criterion was selected as the failure strain
provided in the above mentioned material model. This is to be
remembered that this is not an actual material parameter in this
material model but a value that has to be adjusted to fit the damage
or failure. The failure strain was set to a value of 1.5.
A surface to surface friction-less contact was defined between
the projectile and the target plate. After coming into contact at
horizontal and diagonal edges of the target plate the projectile
slightly slipped in the direction of the plate midpoint leaving
a slightly oval dent at these two positions.
The target plate mesh with shear stress plots for three single
impact cases is shown in Fig. 11. The shell element locations for
LOAD DISPLACEMENT HISTORY
FOR STATIC DENTING
1800
1600
1400
1200
LOAD (N)
thickness comparisons at the dent are shown in Fig. 12 starting at
the dent peak and terminating at the flat surface. The thickness
reduction plots for the above mentioned three cases are shown in
Figs. 13–15 respectively.
The thickness comparison between the experimental results
and the LSDYNA simulation is shown in Fig. 16. There is a good
agreement between the values obtained from the LSDYNA simu-
lations and the experimental investigation. The material model was
based upon the stress–strain curve as shown in Fig. 10.
As all the simulations were conducted for a single impact event
no perforations were obtained in finite element analysis which
relate well to the experimental studies.
6. Discussion
In the design of armor plates the ballistic tests are normally
conducted at the armor plate mid-point and the ballistic limits for
materials regarding their material properties and plate dimensions
are established. No cases were found in the open literature where
the tests were carried out at the armor plate clamped edges or
corners to investigate the change in ballistic limit of a target plate. It
was therefore deemed necessary to carry out the present investi-
gation. In the present work it has been found out that the ballistic
limit may drastically reduce if the impact tests were carried out
near the fixed edges of an armor plate. The vulnerability of rect-
angular plate failure for impacts in the round corners in particular
has been focused upon in this research work.
During the preparatory work the ballistic limit of the armor
plate under investigation was found to be in the range of 125–
130 m s1. For the single impact tests to determine the overall trend
a projectile was impacted at a constant velocity of 120 m s1 on
a number of locations on horizontal and diagonal paths on a rect-
angular armor plate. As the projectile velocity in the experimental
work is not enough to cause plate perforation under a single impact
at any location, the dent depth measurements show large scatter as

DIAGONAL01 shown in Fig. 2. This scatter can be attributed to the difficulties in

1000
measuring the dent depth due to specimen processing. The spec-
DIAGONAL02
800 imen processing involves the sectioning of the specimen during
HORIZONTAL01 which the dent may deform further rendering it impossible to
600
HORIZONTAL02 know the actual dent depth obtained after the impact. Same is not
400 the case with specimen thickness values because during sectioning
MIDPOINT01
200 the dent depth does not undergo any changes. The minimum plate
thickness obtained from experimental work shows a clear
0
0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15 17.5 20 22.5 25 decreasing trend as seen in Fig. 3 for many impact locations. It is
therefore suggested that plate thickness values are more reliable
DISPLACEMENT (mm)
compared to the dent depth.
Fig. 10. Load–displacement diagram obtained from static denting at plate midpoint, at As the overall trend for dent deformation and plate thickness
the end of horizontal path, and at the end of diagonal path. variations became clear by performing numerous impact tests on
 Q.H. Shah / International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 1128–1135 1133

Fig. 11. Shear stress plots for three impact cases. (a) Shear stress for plate midpoint impact, (b) horizontal edge shear stress plot, and (c) diagonal edge shear stress plot.

the horizontal and diagonal paths, it was assumed that further were selected for further impact tests. The dent depth and plate
investigations should focus more on the extreme ends on the thickness values are shown in Tables 1, 2, and Figs. 4 and 5.
horizontal and diagonal paths. Plate mid-point, a point in the As it is clear from the above mentioned discussion that the
vicinity of clamped edge and an extreme point on the same paths impact points near the fixed straight edge and the plate corner are

Fig. 12. Plate thickness variation map.

1134 Q.H. Shah / International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 1128–1135

Plate Mid-Point Thickness (LSDYNA) Table 5

1.40 Maximum shear and equivalent stresses at three impact locations for single impact.
TH-1
1.35 Impact location Maximum shear stress (MPa) Von-Mises stress (MPa)
TH-2
Thickness (mm)

1.30
TH-3 Plate mid-point 46 89
1.25 Horizontal edge 60 117
TH-4
1.20 TH-5 Diagonal edge 70 124
1.15 TH-6
1.10 TH-7
1.05 TH-8
the crucial locations for the possible earlier failure, it was decided
1.00 TH-9
to investigate the plate mid-point, the end point of horizontal path
0.95
and the plate corner location for multiple impacts.
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30
Multiple impacts were carried out at the projectile velocity of
Time (millisec)
100 m s1 to enable the plate under investigation to sustain
Fig. 13. Element thickness for 9 selected elements at the plate mid-point. multiple impacts before perforation. The results are shown in Figs.
7 and 8. These results have not been reported in any earlier
investigation and may lead to design improvement for transparent
Plate Thickness at Horizontal Edge (LSDYNA) polymer armor plates.
TH-1 As it is very complicated to model multiple impacts in FEA, it
1.35
TH-2
was decided to carry out finite element analysis for single impact
1.25
events at the above mentioned three locations regarding the plate
Thickness (mm)

1.15 TH-3
1.05
dent depth and thickness. The FEA results show a good agreement
TH-4
0.95 with experimental work as shown in Fig. 16.
TH-5
0.85 It can be noted that under multiple impact test configuration no
TH-6 perforation was observed at the plate mid-point for the first 6 hits
0.75
TH-7 but at the extreme point on the horizontal path experienced
0.65
TH-8 perforation at 5th impact. The last point on the diagonal path
0.55
TH-9 underwent perforation on 3rd impact showing a significant varia-
0.45
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 tion when compared to the above mentioned single impact results.
Time (millisec) This large variation in dent depth and plate thickness can be
attributed to the amount of constraint to which the extreme
Fig. 14. Element thickness for 9 selected elements for the last impact location on the diagonal impact location is subjected.
horizontal path. The finite element results regarding maximum shear stress and
equivalent stresses for single impact event are shown in Table 5.
Plate Thickness inside Diagonal Edge-LSDYNA These results show that the material failure initiates for the impacts
near the constrained plate edge due to accelerated shear stresses.
1.40 For the increased constraint the stresses rise at an accelerated rate.
As the plate corner is constrained from two sides the stress
Thickness (mm)

1.20 TH-1
concentration is higher in the corner and it results in earlier plate
TH-2
perforation.
1.00 TH-3
The reason for no perforation at the plate mid-point is due to the
TH-4
0.80 fact that the plate can deflect freely to a large lateral distance
TH-5
therefore absorbing more energy in plate deflection. Contrary to
TH-6
0.60 this the constrained plate edges absorb more energy in plate failure
TH-7
mechanism.
0.40
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
Static dent tests were conducted at the above mentioned three
locations and for a constant deformation of 2.66 mm of dent depth
Time (millisec)
the load applied is shown in Table 3. It can be seen that to obtain
Fig. 15. Element thickness for 7 selected elements for the corner impact point. a constant deformation value the load applied can range from 6.7 to
11 times for horizontal and diagonal edge impact locations
Thickness Comparison compared to the mid-point. During the static loading the plastic
1.1 deformation increases to the maximum failure strain of poly-
carbonate. This load increase is due to the higher constraints at
1 MIDPOINT clamped edge locations.
Thickness (mm)

0.9
7. Conclusions
0.8
H-EDGE EXPERIMENT
0.7 LSDYNA Low velocity single and multiple impact tests were carried out
D-EDGE
0.6 on a thin polycarbonate armor plate. The impact locations for these
tests were varied so that the effect of distance and constraints could
0.5
be studied pertaining to the impact locations under a constant
0.4 projectile velocity. Following conclusions were made.
0 1 2 3 4 For a certain projectile velocity which may cause only an
Impact Locations
acceptable plastic deformation at the plate mid-point the defor-
Fig. 16. Comparison of plate thickness obtained from experiments and LSDYNA mation near the firmly clamped edges is significantly higher for
simulations. a single-impact event.
 Q.H. Shah / International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 1128–1135
Under multiple impact case the plastic failure shows a marked
difference near the highly constrained armor plate edges.
Corner impact points are susceptible to accelerated plastic
failure when compared to straight edges of the armor plate.
When designing the rectangular armor plates made up of
a ductile polymer like polycarbonate, special care must be taken for
the protection against the projectile striking near the clamped
straight and curved edges and reinforcements should be provided
near the clamped edges.
In the present work the plate corner was of round profile while
it is expected that sharp corners should pose even higher failure
risks and needs to be investigated.
Acknowledgements
The author is highly obliged to the Research Management
Center of International Islamic University Malaysia for providing
the research grant [ST-65] for the completion of this project.
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