A computational model of viscoplasticity and ductile damage for impact and penetration (Q5949075)

The authors develop a constituve model coupling viscoplastic material behaviour with ductile damage for impact and penetration related problems. The constitutive model includes linear thermoelasticity, von Mises yield criterion, associated flow rule, nonlinear isotropic strain hardening, strain-rate hardening, temperature softening due to adiabatic heating, isotropic ductile damage and failure. Four relatively simple uniaxial tensile tests which are described in detail in the paper, are needed in order to define the material constants required by the constitutive model. The calibration procedure is based on a simple least squares fitting. The computational model is verified by the corresponding finite elements simulations of tensile tests. Furthermore, the finite element simulation of a real ballistic penetration test based on the calibrated and verified constitutive model is validated against the corresponding experimental results. Both tests show a good agreement between simulated and measured results.