Ballistic Performance and Reinforcement Effect of Polyurea-Coated Ceramic Armor

Ceramic has high value due to the lightweight, high-strength properties as a protective material in ballistic applications. However, the inherent high brittleness limits the ballistic performance of ceramic, therefore it is necessary to combine with other materials to enhance the ballistic performance. In this paper, the numerical model was developed to simulate the penetration of 7.62 mm API projectiles into polyurea-coated boron carbide ceramic armor. The effects of the coating position, thickness, and projectile obliquity angle on the ballistic performance of the target were systematically investigated. It is shown that the ballistic performance of polyurea-coated ceramic armor strongly depends upon the position of the coating. The ballistic performance of ceramic armor is significantly enhanced when the polyurea layer is coated on the rear face of the target. Conversely, the ballistic performance is lower than that of the bare ceramic target when the polyurea layer is coated on the striking face or employed as the face sheets of a sandwich structure. The further analysis reveals that the energy absorption of the polyurea has a little ratio. Furthermore, the polyurea layer can change the erosion energy absorption of the target by affecting the stress wave propagation and the penetration. The polyurea coated on the rear face of target is benefit to the ballistic performance for the oblique penetration. Moreover, this advantage decreases with an increase in the projectile obliquity angle.