Transient stress and failure analysis of impact experiments with ceramics

At Ernst-Mach-Institut (EMI), ductile and brittle materials are studied both experimentally and numerically with the focus on shock and impact loading and associated damage effects. Experimental investigations using plate impact, edge-on impact, penetration and perforation on light gas accelerators provide input for numerical studies and allow verification of constitutive models. Hydrocodes are the standard numerical tool for the simulation of transient processes and basis of the modelling in the present paper. Besides use of commercial codes with mesh-based Lagrangean and Eulerian spatial discretization, an own meshfree SPH code has been developed at EMI. Edge-on impact experiments, plate impact tests and deep penetration in confined targets are simulated to study different loading histories and failure conditions. Significantly different material models based on continuum damage approaches as well as microstatistical modelling of inhomogeneities have been implemented. Their performances in reproducing damage fracture patterns and continued fragment loading in different ceramic types are analysed and compared to edge-on impact experiments.