Experimental Investigation of the Bullet-Proofing Capabilities of Fiber Metal Laminate (FML) Under Ballistic Impact Loading

Fiber metal laminates (FMLs) represent a promising structural solution for applications requiring high impact resistance and energy absorption capabilities, which offers a balance between impact performance and weight savings. This paper investigates the ballistic properties of FMLs composed of glass fiber and carbon fiber laminates under ballistic impact loading. The brass bullets have three different profile designs: ogival, semi-spherical, and truncated flat. The composite fiber metal laminates are fabricated through a hot press forming process following a hand lay-up process. Bullets are fired using a compressed gas gun at a pressure ranging from 10 bar to 30 bar. FMLs have several composite thicknesses of 15, 20, and 30 layers. The results indicated that glass fiber metal laminates exhibited superior ballistic resistance on maximum impact load of 724.1 N and energy absorption of 0.71 J. Moreover, it was revealed that carbon fiber metal laminates reached the maximum energy absorption of 0.68 J with 20 layers. In addition, the carbon fiber metal laminates demonstrate higher rigidity compared to glass fiber metal laminates, which requires more composite layers to achieve excellent impact resistance.