Influence of Length Scale on the Transition From Interface Defeat to Penetration in Unconfined Ceramic Targets

One observation from interface defeat experiments with thick ceramic targets is that confinement and prestress becomes less important if the test scale is reduced. A small unconfined target can show similar transition velocity as a large and heavily confined target. A possible explanation for this behavior is that the transition velocity depends on the formation and growth of macro cracks. Since the crack resistance increases with decreasing length scale, the extension of a crack in a small-scale target will need a stronger stress field, viz., a higher impact velocity, in order to propagate. An analytical model for the relation between projectile load, corresponding stress field, and the propagation of a cone-shaped crack under a state of interface defeat has been formulated. It is based on the assumption that the transition from interface defeat to penetration is controlled by the growth of the cone crack to a critical length. The model is compared to experimentally determined transition velocities for ceramic targets in different sizes, representing a linear scale factor of ten. The model shows that the projectile pressure at transition is proportional to one over the square root of the length scale. The experiments with small targets follow this relation as long as the projectile pressure at transition exceeds the bound of tensile failure of the ceramic. For larger targets, the transition will become independent of length scale and only depend on the tensile strength of the ceramic material. Both the experiments and the model indicate that scaling of interface defeat needs to be done with caution and that experimental data from one length scale needs to be examined carefully before extrapolating to another.