FEM Simulation of High Speed Impact Behaviour of Additively Manufactured AlSi10Mg Alloy

The present work investigates impact behaviour of additively manufactured AlSi10Mg alloy and ballistic limit of projectiles using FEM simulations. Tensile tests, dynamic tests and elevated temperature tensile tests simulations were performed on smooth and notched specimens to calculate Johnson-Cook material and damage model parameters, which are subsequenty given as inputs for impact simulation. The relationship between residual velocity versus initial projectile velocity is expressed using Jonas-Lambert's model for calculating ballistic limit. The effects of projectile velocity, its shape, thickness and material property of AlSi10Mg on ballistic limit were thoroughly investigated. C3D8R elements are used to discretize the target plate and mesh transition zone was created in impact region. Johnson-Cook elasto-viscoplastic model was employed to study the ballistic resistance behaviour of AlSi10Mg alloy. Fracture energy value of 43.6 kN/m for AlSi10Mg alloy is used to initiate the damage in target plate. All FE simulations were performed by using ABAQUS/Explicit. It is observed that ballistic impact on 3D printed AlSi10Mg has shown plugging and petaling failure when hemispherical projectile was used while plugging failure in the case of blunt projectiles. The ballistic limit of hemispherical projectiles is found to be higher (311 m/s, 400 m/s) compared to the blunt projectiles (216.5 m/s, 245 m/s). The impact velocity to completely penerate 6 mm thick target plate is relatively higher as compared to 3 mm thick target plate for both projectiles.