The Role of Inclusions in the Failure of Boron Carbide Subjected to Impact Loading

This work investigates the importance of the microstructure of boron carbide for initiating inelastic deformation under impact conditions. Simple loading resulting from a flyer plate impact geometry is used to illustrate the importance of microstructure for the well-controlled and easily instrumented experimental geometry. A second set of simulations is performed on a miniaturized impact geometry to investigate the importance of the microstructure for the early stages of semi-infinite penetration for impact velocities between 0.9 km/s and 1.9 km/s. The effect of the microstructure is more pronounced for the flyer plate impact geometry.