TEMPERATURE EFFECT ON THE BALLISTIC PERFORMANCE OF MILD STEEL PLATE: A NUMERICAL STUDY

This paper numerically investigates the effect of a rigid projectile on the behavior of mild steel plate at different initial temperatures using ABAQUS/Explicit. Additionally, efficacy of the thickness of the plate on ballistic performance at higher temperature is studied. Initial plate temperature in the range of 27 °C to 1500 °C is used. The results show that the residual velocity increases as the initial plate temperature increases and is nearly linear up to 500 °C and, after that, tends to become constant. Temperature rise is insignificant for the initial plate temperature range of 27 °C to 400 °C but exceeds 1000 °C for temperature from 400 °C to 900 °C. No significant temperature rise is observed for initial temperature exceeding 900 °C. Failure modes of steel plate is also studied and discussed. Secondly, effectiveness of increasing plate thickness on ballistic performance of steel plate at higher temperature is studied and discussed.