Abstract This work performed a nonlinear numerical analysis of Armox 500T and Hardox 450 armor steels, Kevlar 29/epoxy laminate, and aluminum honeycomb materials under ballistic conditions, validating the results via experimental data. The ballistic performance of 20 distinct armor configurations was investigated, including monolithic steel, steel-composite, and steel-composite-honeycomb panels produced by various material arrangements. Ballistics tests were conducted using 7.62 × 51 mm full metal jacket bullets with a muzzle velocity of 838 ± 15 m s −1 under the NIJ 0108.01 III protection level standard. The effect of Kevlar29/epoxy layer thickness in multi-layered panels was examined extensively. The results showed that the ballistic performance of the composite armors was significantly improved due to the combination of monolithic steel plates with Kevlar 29/epoxy and aluminum honeycomb layers. Steel-Kevlar 29/epoxy and steel-Kevlar 29/epoxy-honeycomb multi-layered plates provide identical ballistic protection to monolithic steel counterparts while being 51 wt.% and 57 wt.% lighter than monolithic steel armor. Comprehensive finite element simulations of the ballistic impact events were conducted to elucidate the phenomena of defeat and penetration with greater precision.
Özer et al. (Thu,) studied this question.