Initial Testing and Constitutive Modeling of Cellular Rubber Subjected to Large Strains and High Strain Rates

In order to allow for the numerical modeling of impacts for the design of live fire facilities commonly used by military and law enforcement personnel against next generation and environmentally friendly ammunition currently in development, constitutive models for novel target materials must be developed. Many existing facilities are constructed from AR500 steel, coupled with a layer of cellular rubber to reduce impact velocities and contain projectile fragments. High strain rate models, such as the commonly used Johnson-Cook constitutive model, are widely available to characterize AR500 steel, but calibrated models do not currently exist to characterize the cellular rubber. This project seeks to address this shortfall and provide a suitable material model for designers of these facilities in order to ensure the safety of users and the public. Appropriate constitutive models that account for the large strain, high strain rates, and temperature effects experienced during ballistic events and the porosity of the material were researched and a plan developed for future materials testing. Three suitable models were selected for further analysis — A Non-Linear Elastic Model described by Johnson in his work with polyurethane coupled with a Mie-Gruneisen equation of state to account for the porosity of the material, an Osborn-Hull model developed for use with crushable solids, and the Holmquist-Johnson-Cook Model commonly used for cementitious materials.