Particle Size-Dependent Responses of Metal–Ceramic Functionally Graded Plates Under Low-Velocity Impact

Abstract

The analysis of impact response for metal–ceramic functionally graded materials is important for the design of advanced impact resistance structures in aerospace, nuclear and mechanical industries. Here, we propose a dislocation-based continuum model to analyze elasto-plastic deformation of metal–ceramic functionally graded plates under low-velocity impact. The dislocation-based continuum model explicitly accounts for strengthening effects due to geometrically necessary dislocations and plastic strain gradient in impact analysis of metal–ceramic functionally graded plates by combining Taylor dislocation model and Tamura–Tomota–Ozowa (TTO) model. In the dislocation-based model, we describe the effective linear elastic properties of the metal–ceramic functionally graded plates based on the Mori–Tanaka scheme. We show from finite element simulations that particle-size-dependent elasto-plastic properties play important roles in determining the impact behavior of metal–ceramic functionally graded plates and provide a good prediction of diameters of after-impact impression compared to experiments on SiC/Al functionally graded circular plates.