Global Mechanical Response and Its Relation to Deformation and Failure Modes at Various Length Scales Under Shock Impact in Alumina AD995 Armor Ceramic

Polycrystalline aluminum oxide (Al2O3) based materials have both personnel and ground vehicle armor applications. However, their ballistic performance can vary significantly. At the root of this problem is the identification of the fundamental macro and micro mechanisms of deformation and failure in the ballistic event which has proven very elusive over the years. Using a newly developed soft recovery plate impact experiment, a multi-disciplinary, multi-national collaboration has, for the first time, determined micro and macro deformation and damage mechanism maps relating the experimentally measured global mechanical response of a material through matured shock wave diagnostics to the nature of concurrent deformation and damage generated at varying length scales under shock wave loading.