The influence of a finite element mesh on the reliability of the results of dynamic processes of armor penetration of a steel plate by a bullet

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of finite element mesh parameters on the accuracy of modeling the penetration of a steel plate by a bullet in the ExplicitDynamics ANSYS WB computational module. The best results were obtained for the 3rd type of mesh, which included 180 finite elements in the contact zone. For the plate made of impact-resistant S-7 steel, the maximum stresses for the 2nd type of mesh at the attempted penetration reached 1 572,7 MPa, but no penetration was observed. For the S-7 steel plates, penetration was observed only when using the third type of mesh, which confirms the importance of density in the contact zone for an adequate description of dynamic processes. The analysis showed that the Sweep method with density is optimal for modeling steel plate penetration due to the balance of calculation performance and accuracy of the results.