A new perforated armor plate design providing level 3 protection for armored vehicles

Perforated plates, a passive armor system, protect light armored vehicles against small-caliber armor-piercing projectiles. Perforated plates are additional protective plates with a series of holes or slot geometries located at a distance from the vehicle's exterior and designed to interact with the projectile according to the diameter of the threat. In this study, it was aimed to determine the effects of perforated plates manufactured from Hardox 500 steel in two different geometries, in the form of holes and slots, on the ballistic protection of the armor system when mounted at various obliquities to the vehicle body. Ballistic tests were carried out for both perforated and solid plates against 7.62x51 mm armor-piercing bullets. A total of five different configurations were evaluated, including hole and slot geometry, parallel to the back plate representing the vehicle body and angled at 15° and 25°. Numerical analyses of the projectile and armor were performed according to the Johnson-Cook structural model. As a result of ballistic tests, it was observed that the armor system with a slotted perforated plate placed at an angle of 15° provided full ballistic protection by stopping all shots. With this configuration, a weight saving of approximately 29% was possible in the armor system compared to the solid plate providing the same ballistic protection. Numerical analyses confirmed and complemented the ballistic tests. It is understood that perforated plates can be used in vehicle armor systems and can significantly reduce the areal density of the armor system if appropriate parameters are determined by ballistic tests and numerical analysis.