Ballistic limit of non-filled aluminium tank: Experimental and numerical study

This paper presents the ballistic limit for the non-filled aluminium tank. The main objective was to determine the ballistic limit for the front and rear wall of the tank. In the experiment study, the aluminium tank was 3 mm thick, 150 mm wide and 750 mm long. It was impacted by the fragment simulating projectile (FSP) with the velocity from 239 m/s up to 556 m/s. The numerical models were created with the commercial Altair Hyperworks 12.0. The tank was modeled into two parts, which were the walls impacted by the projectile (front and rear walls) and the lateral wall. The impacted walls had finer element compared with the lateral wall. The impacted walls and lateral wall elements were 0.5 mm and 10 mm, respectively. Meanwhile, the FSP was modeled as rigid body. It was observed that the ballistic limit for the front and rear wall tank was 257.7 m/s and 481 m/s, respectively. The numerical study conducted showed the agreement with experimental results.