Review of criteria and methods for evaluating properties of ceramic materials designed for impact load protection

Ceramics is widely used as a material for impact protection due to its mechanical properties and density, which provide high specific strength of barriers. The main function of the barrier is to prevent structural failure of the protected object. The choice of specific ceramics for barriers depends on the mass, ability to absorb impact energy, resistance to multiple impacts, etc. A review of criteria and methods for evaluating the properties of ceramic materials intended for protection against impact loads is given. The existing selection criteria can be divided into two groups: criteria based on the physical (fundamental) properties of the material and criteria for evaluating the service properties of barriers. There are also experimental methods for evaluating the quality of barriers. It is shown that the coefficient of relative penetration of the indenter, proposed by V.Ya. Shevchenko, is universal, taking into account the properties of the penetrating body and allowing to construct a reliable representative series for most ceramic materials in brittle fracture.