Comparison of Polyurethane and Epoxy Adhesive High Strain Rate Performance Using Cohesive Zone Model

It is known that the ballistic performance of ceramic composite personnel armour is highly dependent on the thickness of ceramic and backing material. Recent studies have begun focusing on the effect of adhesive bonding between the ceramic and the backing plate, because failure of the adhesive layer can cause separation between the ceramic and backing. This debonding between substrates causes the ceramic to underperform by shattering early due to an imperfect transmission of the stress wave to the backing material. Given that the adhesive plays such an important role in armour, it is important to better understand the underlying physics.