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• Four ceramic-metal hybrid structures were fabricated and researched. • Influences of ceramic size, boundary constraints and connection mode of the substructures were researched. • Effects of constraints on the influences of penetration position on the performance were studied. • Hybrid structure exhibit much better performance than TC4 plate of equal areal density. Ceramic-metal hybrid structures have drawn extensive attentions as a protective structure for their excellent protection performances to defend penetration. In the present investigation, four hybrid structures were experimentally and numerically studied to determine the influences of the constraints on ceramic on their anti-penetration performances. It was found that the penetration resistances of the hybrid structures were significantly affected by the size of ceramic, boundary constraint and connection mode of the substructures. Both suitable boundary condition and appropriate connection mode of the substructures could provide relatively strong constraints to the ceramic prisms to improve the performance, yet the connection mode of substructures affected the performance more significantly. However, the penetration resistance of the structure with ceramic tile was slightly affected by the boundary condition and connection mode of the substructures. In addition, all of four hybrid structures exhibited much better anti-penetration performances than that of monolithic TC4 plate with the equal areal density. The better performances of the hybrid structures with monolithic frame suggest that suitable frames can provide strong constraints on ceramic prisms, and thus can be potentially used to defend penetrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Ceramic-metal hybrid structures have attracted significant attentions as protection structures because of their high anti-penetration performance. In the present study, a ceramic-metal hybrid structure was constructed with a TC4 frame and ceramic prisms, and its anti-penetration performance and mechanism against a vertical steel projectile were investigated experimentally and numerically. The hybrid structure exhibited much higher penetration resistance than the TC4 monolithic plate of equal areal density. It was found that the high anti-penetration performance was mainly attributed to the frame in the structure, which confined the ceramic prisms and effectively improved their penetration resistance. Additional performance improvement was found to derive from the adhesive that bound the ceramic prisms with the frame. The TC4 frame and adhesive prolonged the dwell time of the projectile on the ceramic prisms and significantly dissipated the projectile kinetic energy. In addition, although the hybrid structure in this investigation was heterogeneous, its anti-penetration performance was affected less by the impact position than those of conventional hybrid structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]