Investigation of Ballistic Impact Response of Aluminum Alloys Hybridized with Kevlar/Epoxy Composites

In this comparative study, ballistic impact responses of various aluminum alloys hybridized with Kevlar/Epoxy composite is investigated numerically. The numerical models were developed using the explicit finite element module of ANSYS. 50 caliber projectile with an initial velocity of 400 m/s is used during the analyses. In the first part of the study, 7075, 6061 and 2024 aluminum alloys are compared for their ballistic impact resistance. Amount of perforation energies (energy absorbing capacity of target) and projectile residual velocities of these alloys are compared. Also, thicknesses of plates are increased up to the point at which the plates don't exhibit full perforations for the used projectile and initial velocity. It is seen that that residual velocity of the Al 7075 T6 is the smallest among the used aluminum alloys which means that 7075 T6 type of aluminum has the higher ballistic impact resistance. In the second part of the study, six different hybrid models that have different combinations of Al 7075 and Kevlar29/Epoxy are proposed. Perforation energies and projectile residual velocities of these proposed models are compared under ballistic impact loadings. It was shown that the hybrid model with 6AL-6KEV orientation, was the optimum structure to resist the ballistic impact loading among the proposed models. Which means that the plate with this orientation has exhibited the maximum energy absorbing characteristics