Experimental Study on Penetration and Perforation of Laminated Kevlar

The penetration behavior and perforation characteristics of Kevlar/Epoxy laminates with various thickness in quasi-static and ballistic perforation penetrated by steel projectiles with different noses are investigated. Quasi-static tests are conducted on MTS810 testing system. The results indicate that global deformation is the major mechanism of energy absorption and woven laminates exhibit larger energy dissipation than that of angle-plied laminates. Therefore, the woven laminates have better quasi-static penetration resistance. Ballistic tests with velocity of 200-700 m/s are executed by using a powder gun with 7.62 mm barrel. Comparing ballistic experimental results with those under quasi-static condition, both the perforation performance and the failure modes are related closely to the speed of penetrator. Quite different from quasi-static tests, ballistic tests indicate that thick angle-plied laminate targets are even better than woven laminates in resisting ballistic impact. It is observed that the damage zone of the laminate is localized highly with the increasing of the impact velocity and correspondingly, the failure modes are more manifold. The shape of projectile noses affects the impact resistance of laminated Kevlar significantly in the range of velocity around the ballistic limit.