Compressive Properties for Alumina Subjected to Shock Loading

Alumina have been investigated for its distinguished characteristics to be widely used in armor application. One-stage light gas gun were utilized to study the dynamic mechanical properties of alumina subjected to shock loading. Manganin gauges were employed to obtain the stress-time histories at the different Lagrange locations in alumina target. The Hugoniot curves of stress and pressure versus specific volume were fitted based on the experimental data. The compressive behaviors for AD90 alumina are shown to be from elastic to “plastic” below 12GPa and under more higher pressure it will be transferred to similar-fluid state. Adopting LS-DYNA finite element code the dynamic failure of alumina ceramic armor are simulated. It is concluded that nucleation and growth of great number of radial and axial cracks and lateral cracks play dominant role in fractured ceramic target under impact loading.