Load history estimation for ballistic impacts with bullet-splash

The paper validates two simplified approaches to simulate the interactions between impactor and target during the so-called bullet splash phenomenon, i.e., the full fragmentation of the impactor without any penetration of the target. The approaches are based on treating the interactions between impactor and target as the deflection of a fluid flow; in one case the load history is estimated by the mass distribution of the bullet and its impact velocity; in the second case the interaction is simulated by means of an arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation. The two methods are applied and experimentally validated to simulate a monolithic .308 rifle bullet impacting on a high strength steel plate. The results demonstrate the suitability of the load history method for large scale finite element explicit simulations for the assessment of ballistic protection systems.