Development of a numerical model for the ballistic penetration of Fackler gelatine by small calibre projectiles

Among the different material surrogates used to study the effect of small calibre projectiles on the human body, ballistic gelatine is one of the most commonly used because of its specific material properties. For many applications, numerical simulations of this material could give an important adde...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European physical journal. ST, Special topics Special topics, 2016-04, Vol.225 (2), p.375-384
Main Authors: Gilson, L., Rabet, L., Imad, A., Kakogiannis, D., Coghe, F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic
Classical and Continuum Physics
Condensed Matter Physics
Dynamic Behaviour of Materials at High Strain Rates: Experiment
Engineering Sciences
Materials Science
Measurement Science and Instrumentation
Modelling and Simulation
Molecular
Optical and Plasma Physics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Regular Article
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Summary:Among the different material surrogates used to study the effect of small calibre projectiles on the human body, ballistic gelatine is one of the most commonly used because of its specific material properties. For many applications, numerical simulations of this material could give an important added value to understand the different phenomena observed during ballistic testing. However, the material response of gelatine is highly non-linear and complex. Recent developments in this field are available in the literature. Experimental and numerical data on the impact of rigid steel spheres in gelatine available in the literature were considered as a basis for the selection of the best model for further work. For this a comparison of two models for Fackler gelatine has been made. The selected model is afterwards exploited for a real threat consisting of two types of ammunitions: 9 mm and .44 Magnum calibre projectiles. A high-speed camera and a pressure sensor were used in order to measure the velocity decay of the projectiles and the pressure at a given location in the gelatine during penetration of the projectile. The observed instability of the 9 mm bullets was also studied. Four numerical models were developed and solved with LS-DYNA and compared with the experimental data. Good agreement was obtained between the models and the experiments validating the selected gelatine model for future use.
ISSN:1951-6355
1951-6401
DOI:10.1140/epjst/e2016-02640-9