Discontinuous Element Software for Computing 2D and 3D Failure of Materials under Ballistic Impact

Adiabatic shear banding and spalling play an important role in material failure during ballistic impact. Modeling software that can accurately account for these failure mechanisms could benefit the development of new ballistic armor. Recently, researchers have made a number of theoretical advancements in understanding these two failure modes, which are yet to be worked into numerical schemes. Ad hoc formulations, such as viscoplastic regularization of discontinuities occurring at shear bands, are still the state of the art. This proposal offers the development of a finite element-based software that will do away with the ad hoc formulations, and will deliver accurate predictions of material failure across a wide range of loading rates. Multi-scale laws for the modeling of spalling and shear bands will be developed in Phase I. Numerical schemes for modeling discontinuities will also be developed. These models will be implemented in a finite element code, which will be used to conduct numerical evaluation of the proposed models. A detailed plan for the implementation, in Phase II, of two- and three-dimensional finite element software capable of accurately predicting material failure at high rates of loading will be presented at the end of Phase I.