Experimental and Numerical Study on Ballistic Impact Response of Vehicle Tires

Tires are a critical component of military wheeled vehicles and are exposed to the threat of fragment caused by explosion of warhead on the battlefield. To study the ballistic impact response of military vehicle tires under fragment, experiments and numerical simulations of spherical fragments impacting tires were carried out. The damage mode of the tires was analyzed. The effects of obliquity, tire thickness, and fragment mass on the dynamic response of tires, as well as the ballistic limit velocity, were analyzed. The results indicate that: (1) The main failure modes of the tire comprise local erosion near the center of the perforation, elastic deformation surrounding the perforation, and tensile fracture of the steel cords. (2) The process of fragment penetration into a tire can be divided into four stages: the entry stage, stable penetration stage, cord layer penetration stage, and fragment exit stage. (3) The cord structure demonstrates its ability to undergo plastic deformation to a certain extent and its restraining effect on the rubber.