Numerical Investigation on the Ballistic Performance of Semi-Cylindrical Nacre-like Composite Shells under High-Velocity Impact

The nacre has excellent impact resistance performance, and it is attracting attention in the field of aerospace composite research. Inspired by the layered structure from nacre, semi-cylindrical nacre-like composite shells of brittle silicon carbide ceramic (SiC) and aluminum (AA5083-H116) were established. Two types of tablet arrangements (regular hexagonal and Voronoi polygons) of the composites were designed, and the same size of ceramic and aluminum shell were established for the impact resistance analyzed numerically. In order to better compare the resistance performance of the four types of structures under different impact velocity, the following parameters were analyzed including energy variation, damage characteristic, bullet residual velocity, and semi-cylindrical shell displacement. The results show that the semi-cylindrical ceramic shells have higher rigidity and ballistic limit, but the severe vibration after impact causes penetrating cracks, and the whole structure failure occurred eventually. The nacre-like composites have higher ballistic limits than semi-cylindrical aluminum shells, and the impact of bullets only causes local failure. In the same conditions, the impact resistance of regular hexagons is better than Voronoi polygons. The research analyzes the resistance characteristic of nacre-like composites and single materials, and provides a reference for the design of nacre-like structures.