International Journal of Impact Engineering 27 (2002) 709727

DYNA-modelling of the high-velocity impact problems

with a split-element algorithm
A.D. Resnyansky*
Weapons Systems Division, DSTO Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 1500, Edinburgh SA 5111,
Australia
Received 31 May 2001; received in revised form 8 January 2002

Abstract
The present work addresses the implementation of a split-element algorithm for modelling fracture in
terminal effects (TE) problems. The algorithm is incorporated within Vec-Dyna3D hydrocode (Technical
report DSWA-TR-96-95. Alexandria (VA): Defense Special Weapons Agency, 1998), which is a prototype
of LS-DYNA3D (Version 950. Livermore: Livermore Software Technology Corporation, May 1999). This
algorithm has also been implemented in LS-DYNA2D (UCID-18756, Rev. 2. Livermore: Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, 1984.) and it is veried numerically in the present paper. In doing so,
tensile and shear modes of fracture due to high velocity impact are analysed in detail. Plate collision (the
spallation problem) may be considered as a test problem for achieving the tensile mode of fracture.
Encounter of a compact projectile with a plate (the plugging problem) plays similar role for the shear mode.
Inuence of choice of effective (equivalent) stress involved in a 3D-extension of a fracture criterion is
analysed from two points of view: (i) the mesh effects, and (ii) a role of the complex stress state. The strainrate sensitive Maxwell-type model (J. Appl. Mech. Tech. Phys. 13(6) (1972) 868.) is employed as a
constitutive model. Workability of the algorithm in 3D case is illustrated with a numerical example for the
plugging problem. The calculations being conducted show an appropriateness of the present approach for
TE problems. Crown Copyright r 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: DYNA hydrocode; High-velocity impact; Spallation; Plugging; Fracture criterion

1. Introduction
An assessment of the fragment effect due to impact is a key issue in many TE
problems. Majority of these problems could be solved with existing modern Eulerian and
*Tel.: +61-(0)8-8259-7453; fax: +61-(0)8-8259-6247.
E-mail address: anatoly.resnyansky@dsto.defence.gov.au (A.D. Resnyansky).
0734-743X/02/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright r 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 7 3 4 - 7 4 3 X ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 0 8 - 8

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EulerianLagrangian hydrocodes. Nevertheless, Lagrangian hydrocodes are very attractive for

evaluation of the fragment effect because they prevent mass diffusion through contact and free
boundaries, which allows one to estimate accurately the momentum and energy deposited to a
target. The major disadvantage of the Lagrangian approach is its intolerance to severe
deformations. At the same time, many real materials do not withstand large deformations and fail
much earlier.
Hydrocodes take failure into account in a number of ways. Some of the methods impart
Eulerian features into the Lagrangian hydrocodes. For example, the popular method for
modelling fragmentation with the Lagrangian approach is an erosion algorithm implemented in
EPIC and DYNA [1,2]. However, eroding elements due to failure results in the Eulerian-type
mass diffusion through the fragment boundaries. Another radical approach, which can be used
with any Lagrangian hydrocode, is the phenomenological representation of the crack eld (see,
e.g. [3]). This continuum-type approach is convenient to implement, however, the element erosion
is required to calculate the brittle-type fracture followed by the fragment separation in TE
problems. The next in order of detailing the physical process of fracture is consideration of the
crack opening within the hydrocodes numerical scheme. The advent of crack-containing nite
elements in the literature aims at incorporation of the fracture mechanics solutions into the nite
element calculations (see, e.g. [4]). This approach seems to be more suitable for the calculations
with a few isolated cracks; numerical examples of this sort for 2D- and 3D-crack propagation can
be found in papers [5,6].
The present algorithm for processing the brittle-type fracture is based on a simplied approach,
which neglects many physical peculiarities in the vicinity of the crack tip. Development of the
crack surface is accompanied by stress relaxation: within the present approach only this fact is
considered to be essential. The split-element methodology is not aimed at determination of the
exact location of cracks and shape of fragments. The primary objective of the present approach is
to design an instrument for both calculation of separation of fragments from a target and
localisation of the fracture zones. This option could enable us to assess mass and velocity of
fragments within the mesh accuracy and to evaluate the fragment effect on target.
A similar approach, which exploits ideas of the discrete element method (DEM), has been
suggested in [7] for structural calculations, and a variety of hydrocodes with the DEM-features
have been developed (see, e.g. [8]). The prototype of the present approach implemented into a
LagrangianEulerian nite-volume code has been developed in [9]. The rst incorporation of this
option within LS-DYNA2D has been attempted by the author in [10]; however, the split-element
algorithm has not been properly veried and an elastic-plastic material model with properties
insensitive to strain rates was employed. The strain-rate sensitive Maxwell-type model [11] is used
in the present paper. Outline of an implementation of the model into the DYNA-hydrocode is
described in the second part of the paper.
The split-element algorithm and fracture model are briey described in the third part of the
paper. Firstly, a fracture criterion is considered. When employing fracture criteria dependent on
stress, an equivalent stress is usually employed that reduces complex stress state to the only
variable. This variable, which is typically an algebraic function of components of the stress tensor,
is implicitly associated with a fracture mode; for example, an equivalent stress proportional to the
maximum principal stress is associated with the tensile fracture mode, and so on. Fracture is a
complex process involving a number of mechanisms; therefore, treating the crack development as

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711

one governed by a specic fracture mode is very simplistic for the case of projectile-target
interaction. Nevertheless, the fracture experiments are usually conducted at a simple stress
condition, so, the use of single effective or equivalent stress is in common practice. It is yet to be
understood how the complex stress state in the vicinity of the crack tip affects the crack opening.
At present generalised phenomenological approaches are very popular: a closed or semi-closed
surface in a stress space related to quasi-static tests is considered as the failure criterion. For
example, this type of failure surfaces for simulation of the concrete behaviour is known as a family
of cap models [12], and these surfaces are expressed as limiting dependencies between the rst and
second invariants of the stress tensor. Many materials exhibit rate sensitivity in dynamic
conditions; therefore, the high strain-rate problems do not suit fully to the formulation employing
quasi-static fracture criteria. In Section 3.1 we consider a possible way for taking the complex
stress state into a time-dependent fracture criterion. From another angle, the effective stress in a
fracture criterion may be calculated either in a reference system associated with the nite-element
mesh or in an invariant form. In the subsequent Section 4 we analyse how this choice related to
the complex stress state affects numerical results.
Analytical solutions of the damage fragmentation problems are very rare (e.g. see [13]); the
solutions in a nite form for the problems involving elastic and plastic ow of strain-rate sensitive
materials do not probably exist. Therefore, proper numerical testing is considered to be the only
viable option for verication of the algorithm; again, numerical solutions exist for a number of
well-known fragmentation problems conrmed by experiments. Examples of such problems,
which might be associated with two basic tensile and shear modes of fracture, are spallation due to
a plate collision and the plugging due to ballistic impact. Numerical convergence of any method
can be checked for by calculations with rening grids. In the multi-dimensional case the
convergence formally should be veried on the meshes with arbitrary orientations, which is
practically impossible; therefore, the present consideration is restricted to meshes with a xed
orientation. Hundreds of nodes in every space direction are desirable for a good resolution of
stress waves. This requires millions of nodes and elements for a 3D-problem, which means that
numerical verication is very difcult for the 3D-case. A compromise is considered in the paper:
convergence of the method is examined for 2D-cases, and 3D-case is illustrated with an example
followed by comparison with 2D-calculation on similar grid.

2. Material model
According to the owchart of the DYNA hydrocode, outlined in [14], the program block
associated with implementation of material model involves several stages from calculation of the
stress deviator from a constitutive equation further to determination of pressure from an equation
of state and calculation of total stress. Usually, the primary attention is paid to the calculation of
the stress deviator because the user-dened-material subroutine in LS-DYNA3D deals with this
stage only. The model employed in the present paper operates with a generalisation of the MieGruneisen equation of state [15], so the whole material implementation block is being updated.
In the current section we focus on realisation of the constitutive equation. Omitting details of
the stress rate characterisation (see, e.g. [14]), the stress rate operator in LS-DYNA is split into a
sum of rotational and material differential operators. Concentrating on the material stress rate,

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712

the Maxwell-type constitutive relation [11] can be presented as follows:

ds0ij
dt

 2G  Dij 

s0ij
ts; T

Here s0ij is the stress deviator, G is the shear modulus, Dij is the strain rate deviator, t is a function
responsible for relaxation of shear stresses, T is temperature, and s is shear stress (a function of
the second invariant of the stress tensor). When deducing Eq. (1) from the model [11], the rate
change of the shear modulus was neglected. Numerical integration of Eq. (1) is not an easy
problem because the function t varies sharply from fractions of a microsecond up to almost
innity. The function is tted to a set of experimental stressstrain dependencies versus strain rate,
and it was designed using the dislocation theory as published in [9]. Applying the physical splitting
scheme, the increment Ds0ij from a time level k up to the next one is calculated as follows:
0

s% 0ij  sijk
2G  Dij ;
Dt

sijk1  s% 0ij
Dt

sijk1
 k1
;
ts ; T

Ds0ij sijk1  sijk :

The most important stage to achieve a satisfactory accuracy of the whole step is numerical
solution of the nonlinear stiff system of equations in Eq. (2) (the second group of the equations),
which require iterations. In order to facilitate the calculation, we use the differential
representation of this system. Multiplying equations of the stiff system by s0ij and then summing
up the products over i and j; we have an equation for s; which takes the same form as the
equations for the stress deviator. Using a nite-difference approximation, this equation acquires
the following form, sk1  s% sk1 Dt=tsk1 ; T; which is straightforward, calculated by
iteration with the Newtons method. Determination of the stress deviator components s0ij is
0
nalised with the exact formula: sijk1 s% 0ij sk1 =s:
% This relation follows from a comparison of
the stiff system of differential equations, the nite-difference approximations of which for s0ij are
shown in Eq. (2), with the corresponding equation for s: Material data for the model [11] were
obtained directly with a tting algorithm [16] (see also Appendix). With the exception of the
specic dislocation theory form for the function t; a similar model has been realised in [17] as
Material elastic with viscosity (material no. 60 in the LS-DYNA material database).
Unfortunately, we could not employ the material model no. 60 in the present work because it
is not available in VecDyna [18].

3. Modelling fracture
3.1. Fracture criterion
Fracture model employed in the present paper has been published in detail elsewhere [10,19].
This model is based on a damage accumulation criterion [20], which is widely used for hydrocode
modelling of impact problems. The recent version of the LS-DYNA3D material model database
[17] contains this criterion as a fracture model for the erosion option (*MAT ADD EROSION
option). The rst step of the split-element algorithm being realised within DYNA is generation of
initial crack. The algorithm forms the crack when a history variable responsible for
accumulation of damage exceeds a threshold. To describe propagation of an existing crack

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713

within the present approach a semi-empirical rule linking the crack propagation velocity and a
remote stress state associated with the crack may be used [10,19]. Summarising, we can formulate
the following owchart for processing fracture within the present model:
(1) accumulation of damage (a history variable is introduced for this purpose);
(2) formation of a macrocrack when the history variable exceeds a threshold;
(3) the splitting of elements of undamaged material due to either damage accumulation or crack
propagation.
It should be noted that the present algorithm of processing damage is isotropic but the fracture
having already occurred may affect stress state so the fracture-induced anisotropy is possible.
The damage criterion [20] can be rewritten in the kinetic form as follows:
(
s  s0 n ; s > s0
dh
F; F
;
3
dt
0;
sps0
here h is the history (damage) variable, d=dt is the particle derivative. Here h 0 at t 0 for
initially undamaged material, s0 is the minimum threshold at which the damage accumulation
starts, s is an equivalent stress, n is a material constant. We declare a macrocrack forms when
hXJ; J is a material constant. A procedure for determination of the constants has been described
in detail for a number of metals elsewhere [21].
The effective or equivalent stress s is dened uniquely only at a simple stress condition. In the
case of a multi-dimensional deformation resulting in a complex stress state the effective stress can
be chosen in a number of ways as a function of the stress components. Inuence of this choice on
the calculation results will be analysed in the next section. A fracture criterion at a complex stress
state is traditionally represented by a limiting curve/surface in a stress space. While employing a
kinetic fracture criterion, the curve is generalised to a zone of limit stresses because the strength
depends on the time of application of load (e.g. see a schematic of the representation in [22]). For
instance, with the effective stress linking the tensile stress sn and shear stress st linearly, this zone
is presented as a dashed area 3 in Fig. 1. The strength theories for many conventional criteria are
well developed, and, correspondingly, sets of curves/surfaces have been derived. For example,
curve 1 in Fig. 1 represents a cap fracture model [12] for a concrete material. An equivalent stress
employed by a fracture criterion for ceramics [23] is represented by curve 2 in Fig. 1, and so on.

Fig. 1. Presentations of fracture criteria in a stress space.

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These curves were obtained in static conditions; that is, referring to the time-dependent (kinetic)
criteria, they are associated with a large time of application of load, denoted by ta ; so, they are
represented by the interior boundary of the corresponding limit stress zones (above-mentioned
dashed zone in the stress space). On the contrary, at a small ta the stress causing failure is
essentially larger, and it tends to the theoretical strength associated with ta approaching zero;
therefore, the exterior boundary of the limit stress zone represents the corresponding criterion at
ta 0 (Fig. 1). Thus, a kinetic fracture criterion might schematically be presented as an innite
series of enclosed curves within the limit stress zone, each of them is correspondent to a specic ta :
Mapping of the curves within the zone depends on a specic kinetic form of the criterion;
however, shape of the curves in the stress space is determined by the functional form of the
equivalent stress. For example, presentation of the equivalent stress as a linear function of the
tensile and shear stresses provides us with a series of parallel straight lines bounding the dashed
zone shown in Fig. 1.
Summarising, the equivalent stress can be expressed as a functional relation on the basic stresses
and be used within a kinetic fracture criterion. In the present paper only the linear dependencies of
s on sn and st are considered for the damage kinetics (3):
4
s  Asn Bst :
It is seen, that the equivalent stress corresponding to A 0 is associated with the shear fracture
(lines parallel to the line 4 in Fig. 1) and B 0with the tensile one (lines parallel to the line 5 in
Fig. 1). In their turn, method of calculation of the tensile and shear stresses in Eq. (4) may depend
on the nite-element mesh. First, we can choose these stresses as the normal and tangential
stresses with respect to the plane of the element interface:
5
sn snn ; st jsnt j; snn > 0:
The second choice employed in the present paper is the maximum principal stress as sn and
maximum shear stress, which relates to the shear mode of fracture:
sn maxfs1 ; s2 ; s3 g; st maxfjs1  s2 j; js2  s3 j; js3  s1 jg=2; sn > 0;
6
here s1 ; s2 ; and s3 are principal stresses. Both forms are similar, the major distinction between the
representations (5) and (6) is that the latter has the mesh-independent formulation. The crack
propagation option is related to mesh; therefore, in order to conduct a consistent comparison
between various choices of the fracture criteria including the invariant version (6), the crack
propagation option has been disabled in the present study. Other choices of sn and st are also
possible, e.g. the Mises-like one, associating the stresses with the rst and second invariants of
the stress tensor. However, for the purpose of algorithm verication we believe that one choice for
every case of the representations (mesh-dependent and invariant ones) is sufcient to illustrate the
robustness of the approach.
3.2. Split-element algorithm
First, we consider a 2D-nite element mesh assuming that all elements of the mesh are
quadrilateral. The nite element codes employ a standard array ix of the element interconnectivity
that provides us with the numbers of associated nodes for any element. That is, for ieth element
the numbers ix1; ie; ix2; ie; ix3; ie; ix4; ie are the node numbers of the element ie in the

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715

Fig. 2. Descriptors for the nodes with crack tips specic to the split-element algorithm.

counter-clockwise direction. In order to reduce the computational cost, the present algorithm
elaborates the inverse table ixc which establishes the same rule for every node with respect to the
surrounding elements. Every side between two elements of the mesh is a candidate for splitting.
The failure structure of the mesh is represented by the interconnectivity arrays, which has to be
modied after every splitting event. In fact, the splitting means that the affected side is replaced by
a pair of free surfaces; however, it does not mean that the nodes joining the side are automatically
split. The cases when it happens generate a list of the node descriptors, which are specic to the
split-element methodology (Fig. 2). That is, for an element associated with a node from this list
the standard interconnectivity array ix and its inverse map ixc cannot provide us with actual
failure structure (an information about the split sides) around the element. Therefore, the present
algorithm requires an auxiliary array (the array of node descriptors), with the descriptors of Fig. 2
as a part of it. Similar method, employing additional information about the crack orientation, is
used in the latest version of LS-DYNA3D for the material no. 17 with oriented crack [17].
However, no actual separation occurs for this material in the case of fracture.
Summarising, the split-element algorithm consists of the following steps:
1. Calculation of the history parameter h according to Eq. (3) for each side between two non-split
elements.
2. Check-up of the condition hXJ: If the condition takes place, then the interconnectivity and
auxiliary arrays for two corresponding elements and affected nodes are updated.
3. Calculation of the crack propagation velocity for the nodes at the crack tip (the cases from
Fig. 2) followed by cumulative calculation of the crack length. This means that at a nonzero
crack velocity V the current crack length related to a node is advanced by V Dt and memorised
in a nodal variable L during the calculation from one time level up to the next one with the time
increment Dt: If the length exceeds the mesh size the splitting of the affected side occurs due to
the crack propagation. In the present algorithm the crack propagation may only be calculated
for the cracks having already formed.
Fig. 3 illustrates how the nodal conguration changes while fracture is developing. Any element
e has four nodes enumerated locally as 1,2,3,4 in the counter-clockwise direction. The nodes 1 and
2 are located on a horizontal line of the local coordinate system, and the nodes 3 and 4 (side 34)
are on the next horizontal line. Correspondingly, two adjacent vertical lines contain sides 14 and
23. Thus, a crack initiation along side 14 for the element e means crack initiation along side 20 30
for the adjacent element e0 . When describing failure within the nite-element grid, we specify types
of the failure by the numbers (descriptors) from 1 to 4 for the central nodes in the
congurations plotted in Fig. 2. After the element split, nodes 20 and 30 of e0 as well as nodes 1 and

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A.D. Resnyansky / International Journal of Impact Engineering 27 (2002) 709727

Fig. 3. Examples of the modication of the element and node structures for initially undamaged (a) and damaged
(b) material before (left hand pictures) and after (right hand pictures) the split element processing.

4 of the element e take new descriptors (descriptors 1 and 2, respectively, from the list in Fig. 2),
substituting the node descriptors of previously undamaged material (a zero descriptor). For the
example in Fig. 3(a) the nodes are not split; in the next one (Fig. 3(b)) the mesh was already
subject to a crack formation. We have two adjacent elements with nodes 10 20 30 40 and 1234.
Descriptors for the nodes 20 =1 and 30 =4 are 2 from the list in Fig. 2 and the zero descriptor,
respectively. If either the damage variable has exceeded the threshold J or the crack length
accumulated in the variable L for the crack with a tip at the node 20 =1 has become more than
length of the side 14 (in the present example the latter can occur only in the Fig. 3(b) case), then:
(i) new node is added into the node list (the node 20 =1 split into two nodes: the node 1 takes
attributes of the old one, new node 20 takes the same attributes but its node descriptor is
undened); (ii) previous descriptor 2 from the list in Fig. 2 for the node 1 is replaced by the
descriptor which has free surface on the right of the node; (iii) the new descriptor for the node 20 is
dened as a similar descriptor as for (ii) but with indication of free surface on the left of the node;
(iv) the zero descriptor for the node 30 =4 is modied into the descriptor 2 from the list in
Fig. 2. In this case node splitting takes place and the node list is updated along with the
interconnectivity arrays ix and ixc for the affected elements e and e0 .
Three-dimensional extension of the split-element algorithm is briey stated below. Similarly
to the 2D case we consider that the present method is applicable only to the 8-node (solid)
elements in DYNA3D. As above, the mesh structure is determined with the interconnectivity
array ix, which contains information for every element about the node numbers for 8 nodes of
the element. Similarly, the failure structure is specied by a separate descriptor associated
with every node. A node in the 3D-case is associated with 8 elements, which may surround
the node, and 12 element sides may have this node as the common point. This node
descriptor informs us which of the 12 associated sides associated with the node have been subject
to failure. This realisation is slightly different from that for LS-DYNA2D in the point that the 3D
node descriptors provide us with information about associated sides, whereas the 2D descriptors
are related to the whole split structure around the node. The owchart of the algorithm contains
two basic steps: (i) calculation of the damage variable from the damage/fracture criterion for the
sides which have not yet been failed; (ii) update of the crack structure, including the
interconnectivity arrays ix and ixc, and the node descriptor, after failure on relevant sides has
occurred.

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717

4. Numerical verication
We start verication with a test spallation problem related to the tensile mode of fracture. We
consider the case of collision between two copper plates at the velocity of 300 m/s. These two
cylindrical plates have the same diameter of 11.6 cm, the thicknesses of the yer plate and target
are 3 and 5 mm, respectively. A procedure for tting constants of the function t in Eq. (1) from
experimental dependencies of the yield stress versus strain rate for copper is described in
Appendix. Three grids with ascending numbers of nodes have been used for the mesh dependence
analysis. A successive grid in the sequence of the grids has twice as many elements in each space
direction as the previous one. The problem simulates the plane impact and the central area of the
plates is in the 1D state. Spallation is caused by reection of the compression shock wave initiated
by the collision from the free surface of the target that may result in a strong tensile pulse being
accompanied by the spall fracture. The criterion (3) describes the tensile mode of fracture if the
equivalent stress is chosen in the form s sn ; here the mesh-independent option (6) is used.
Results of the hydrocode modelling at t 20 ms are shown in Fig. 4 for those three grids (the
numbers of elements of the target mesh are: (a) 100  20; (b) 200  40; (c) 400  80). It is seen that
thickness of the spallation plate is reproducible for all these calculations and that the fracture
zones are quite similar. A slight instability of the crack surface is observed for the coarsest grid as
a result of higher numerical viscosity for this grid; however, the spall thickness is not affected by
the mesh size. Thicknesses of the calculated spall plate counted in elements and in a unit of length
at the time t 20 ms are 11 (2.82 mm), 23 (2.91 mm), and 45 (2.95 mm) for the cases (a), (b), and
(c) in Fig. 4, respectively. A magnied area of the yer plate and target in vicinity of the symmetry

Fig. 4. Mesh dependence in the LS-DYNA2D calculation of spallation: (a) rough grid; (b) grid with moderate
renement; (c) ne grid; (d) a magnied central area of the rough grid calculation; (e) the free surface velocities for
the rough 1 and moderate 2 grids, and the free surface velocity for the moderate grid case with disabled fracture
option 3.

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A.D. Resnyansky / International Journal of Impact Engineering 27 (2002) 709727

axis for the coarse grid calculation of Fig. 4(a) is shown in Fig. 4(d). This example also
demonstrates numerical convergence of the split-element method: it is observed less difference
in the calculation results between the cases of ne and moderate renement meshes (Fig. 4(b)
and (c)) than between the rough and moderate ones (Fig. 4(a) and (b)). Calculations with
the mesh-dependent choice (5) of the base stresses in the fracture criterion did not show a
remarkable difference from the results in Fig. 4. The free surface velocities of target Vfs are
shown in Fig. 4(e) for the coarse and moderate grids (curves 1 and 2, respectively). Curve 3 shows
the free surface velocity for the moderate grid calculation with disabled fracture criterion in
order to emphasise the onset of spallation. For the present choice of constants in the fracture
criterion the material failure starts at approximately 3.6 ms from the moment of impact for all
the grids; this time is in agreement with similar Vfs experiments. It should be noted that the
time resolution of stress waves in the present 2D calculations is rather low because even for the
ne grid case the maximum number of elements in the impact direction is only 80 that is a
relatively rough grid.
In relation to the calculation results the question is how the brittle type spallation is agreed with
the viscous-type damage prevailing in copper; the latter may result in unclear spall plane visible as
a localised zone of porous material (e.g. see [3]). It should be noted that the present algorithm does
not detail the mechanism of fracture, and it treats fracture as a brittle-type process; therefore, the
approach provides us only with information about location of the damage zone with preservation
of the failed elements. Nevertheless, this information can eventually be obtained for the both types
of fracture because both of the viscous and ductile mechanisms can be taken into account through
the damage accumulation criterion and the brittle-type algorithm of fracture.
The plugging due to ballistic impact is a suitable statement for analysis of the shear mode of
fracture at the high-velocity impact. To realise the plugging we consider the normal impact of a
cylindrical projectile made of hard steel to an aluminium plate. The impact velocity is 1 km/s,
diameter of the projectile is 1 cm, projectiles height is equal to its diameter, thickness of the plate
is 5 mm, and plates diameter is 8 cm. Constants of the function t in Eq. (1) for steel and
aluminium are tted in the same fashion as for copper in the previous problem. Similar set of
calculations with rening grids has been conducted for the convergence analysis of the plugging
problem. A grid in 40  10 elements was allocated as the rough grid for the target in the rst run
and two ner grids in 80  20 and 160  40 elements were selected as the moderate and ne grids,
respectively. Similar allocations have been made for the projectile.
Result of the calculations is shown in Fig. 5. The left picture of each pair of plots in Fig. 5(ac)
corresponds to the moment of t 20 ms after the impact, the right plot is the state at t 40 ms.
The fracture criterion being employed in the present case involves the base stresses in the meshdependent form (5) and the equivalent stress is chosen to take the shear mode of fracture into
account: s st : It is seen from Fig. 5 that location and extension of fracture zones are very close
for all these three grids. Two crack directions are typical for the plugging problem, which have
been analysed in details in [24]: the principal crack, aligned with the adiabatic shear zone,
separates the plug from the remainder of the target, and the second (cross) system of crack are
cracks in the direction orthogonal to the line of impact, which are caused by the shear bending of
the target (Fig. 6(c)). The major attention has been traditionally paid to the rst system of cracks,
including extensive studies with hydrocodes (see, e.g. [5,6]). The present calculation is also in good
agreement with the availability of the cross system of cracks.

A.D. Resnyansky / International Journal of Impact Engineering 27 (2002) 709727

719

Fig. 5. Mesh dependence in the LS-DYNA2D calculation of plugging: (a) rough grid; (b) grid with moderate
renement; (c) ne grid.

It is worth noting that the second system of cracks calculated with the present algorithm should
be considered as an indicator of the fracture zone only; no real cracks are calculated with the
present approach. The cracks with orientation along the impact axis could also be observed as an
eroded zone with the erosion option in LS-DYNA; however, the second (cross) system of cracks
cannot be tracked with that method of calculation because the erosion option works by denition
as a separation option. On the other hand, the continuum damage approaches, which might
describe this damage zone, cannot simulate separation of the plug from the target. The present

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A.D. Resnyansky / International Journal of Impact Engineering 27 (2002) 709727

Fig. 6. Calculation of the plugging with the mesh-independent formulation for equivalent stress in the fracture
criterion; (a) t 20 ms; (b) t 37 ms; (c) formation of the bending cracks near edge of the opening in an aluminium
target after ballistic impact (experiment [24]).

Fig. 7. Role of the choice of the calculation method for the base stresses in the fracture criterion; (a) rough grid, (b) ne
grid. Left hand part of each drawing is correspondent to the choice of the stresses in the invariant form (6); right hand
partthe base stresses are in the mesh-dependent form (5).

method manages both the embedded cracks/damage and separation cracks. The calculations in
Fig. 5(ac) show that both the systems of cracks are being developed for all the meshes.
Numerical dissipation for the rough grid appears as a non-elliptical pattern of the targets
debris. The elliptic pattern typical for the high-velocity impact is observed for the moderate grid
and it conserves at further renement that proves convergence of the algorithm. Another key
parameter is the size of fragments and dimensions of the target damage (diameter of the
perforation). The diameter of the opening is mesh dependent but it is less inuenced by the mesh
size starting from the moderate grid that also conrms convergence of the method.
Similarly to the collision problem, the choice of the base stresses sn and st in the invariant form
(6) does not make a signicant impact on the plugging problem (Fig. 6(ab)). Comparison of the
last two calculations in vicinity of the shear zone with the choices of equivalent stress in the meshdependent and invariant forms is shown in Fig. 7 for the rough and ne grids; here right-side plots

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Fig. 8. Modelling of the plate collision problem with consideration of the complex stress state in the fracture criterion;
(a) rough grid; (b) moderate grid.

Fig. 9. Modelling of the plugging problem with consideration of the complex stress state in the fracture criterion
(moderate grid); (a) t 20 ms; (b) t 35 ms.

are correspondent to the results of Fig. 5(c) and left-side plots to those of Fig. 6. It is seen that
with rening the debris patterns are getting closer regardless the method of calculation of the
stresses in the fracture criterion.
Up to the present the fracture calculations have been restricted to purely tensile and shear
modes. To analyse the inuence of the complex stress state, calculations have been conducted for
the same problems with the equivalent stress chosen in the linear form (4) involving both tensile
and shear stresses as the linear representation, the coefcients of the linear function are taken as
A 0:1; B 1: The constants have been chosen on the basis of the impact test data [25] where
measurements of longitudinal and lateral stresses in a number of metals have been conducted. The
data demonstrate that ratio of the normal stress to the shear one could be as high as 10; therefore,
this choice of constants was believed to be realistic for the illustration purpose. The invariant
choice of the base stresses (6) was used. Results of the calculation for the plate collision problem
are shown in Fig. 8. It is seen how the shear fracture is involved into the solution at the peripheral
zones subject to bending.
Results of calculation for the plugging problem with the same choice of the equivalent stress are
shown in Fig. 9. From observation of the plug in Fig. 9 at magnication it is seen that the tensile
mode of fracture contributes mainly to the spallation near the free surface of the plug.
The fracture criterion (3) has been veried in a variety of papers. In the present case the fracture
zones are also in a good agreement with experiments. For example, calculated thickness of the
spall plate is close to that in experiments [3] as shown in Fig. 10. A magnied part of the target in

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A.D. Resnyansky / International Journal of Impact Engineering 27 (2002) 709727

Fig. 10. Comparison of computed splitting and location of experimental spallation in the plate collision problem.

the vicinity of the symmetry axis is shown separately (left drawing); the calculated splitting is
observed at approximately x 20:15 cm and experimental result [3] is marked by the bold line at
x 20:155 cm, an undamaged area of the target from 0.8 cm down to 0.13 cm was cut out to
reduce size of the plot in vertical direction. In this example two copper plates have been collided
with the velocity of 159 m/s; the plate thicknesses are 0.62 and 1.59 mm. This calculation
employed the fracture criterion with the invariant choice of the equivalent stress (6) and the linear
dependence (4) of the stress against the tensile and shear stresses.

5. Numerical three-dimensional example

A 3D-calculation with the split-element algorithm has been conducted for the plugging
problem. The only distinction from the 2D-case of the previous section is the cubic shape of
projectile. In view of symmetry, we calculate a quarter of the conguration bounded by the yzand xz-symmetry planes. The planes are aligned with the projectile/target sides, and the impact
direction is aligned with the z-axis. To minimise the computer memory requirements, dimensions
of the target in the x- and y-directions are twice reduced against the 2D-case. Results of the
calculation for a rough grid are shown in Fig. 11((a) t 20 ms; (b) t 40 ms); the grid is
approximately twice coarser than the rough grid from the 2D-calculation in the previous section.
In order to compare a 3D-result with 2D-calculation the mesh was twice rened approaching
the resolution of the rough mesh for the plugging problem in Section 3. The states for the 3D- and
2D-calculations being compared are shown in Fig. 12(a) and (b), respectively. For easier
visualisation of the crack system on the target surface the projectile is just outlined. The major
distinction of this crack system from that in the 2D-case is the occurrence of the longitudinal shear
cracks related to the corner of the projectile.
A convenient way to analyse a 3D-structure is to consider 2D-cross-sections of the structure.
Then we can assess actual shape of fragments and judge whether the separation really takes place.
In the present work the cross sectioning was conducted with the new LSTC post-processor LSPOST.
Fig. 13 depicts yz-cross-sections of the projectile and target at several selected x-coordinates.
The indices I and II point to the projectile and target areas, respectively. Fig. 13(a) corresponds to

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723

Fig. 11. Three-dimensional calculation of the plugging with VecDyna (a rough grid).

Fig. 12. Calculation of the plugging with DYNA: (a) 3D-calculation with VecDyna3D; (b) comparable 2D-calculation
with LS-DYNA2D.

xE0 (the cross-section close to the yz-plane), Fig. 13(b) is next section crossing the projectile area;
Fig. 13(cd) are cross-sections of peripheral areas of the target. It is seen that the crack system in
Fig. 13(a) is very close to the 2D one in Fig. 13(b). The cross-sections in Fig. 13(bd) show that
the plug below the projectile is actually a compact fragment completely separated from the target.

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Fig. 13. Cross-sections of the 3D-conguration at x const. (a) at xE0; (b) at x x1 ; (c) at x x2 ; (d) at x x3 ;
(0ox1 ox2 ox3 ).

Fig. 14. Cross-sections of the 3D-conguration at z const. (a) at z z1 ; (b) at z z2 ; (c) at z z3 ; (d) at z z4 ;
(z1 > z2 > z3 > z4 ).

In order to assess the shape of the plug, the top view is convenient to obtain by xy-crosssections at z=const (Fig. 14). It is seen that the corner induced crack visualised in Fig. 12(a) is
being developed into the crack separating the plug from the target, while going down. The corner
inuence is dominant from the top area of target in z down along the whole plug zone (Fig. 14(c)).
This results in a cubic shape of the plug (Fig. 14(d)).

6. Conclusions
We believe that the present approach incorporated into the DYNA hydrocode is suitable for
the TE problems because: (1) it preserves the Lagrangian approach that is essential for a clear
resolution of the contact and free boundaries of fragments; and (2) it conserves mass, momentum,
and energy of elements which, otherwise, could be lost during the element erosion followed by the
formation of cracks and fragments. Both points are important for assessment of the fragment
effect.
The split-element method enables features of the continuum damage model and erosion method
to be combined within one approach. Thus, this allows both: (i) to assess non-fatal damage
(embedded cracks), and (ii) to calculate separation of fragments from a target.
It should be stressed that the present algorithm is not aimed at calculating isolated cracks
comparable with the mesh size. The only information, which is supposed to be obtained, is
localisation of the fracture zones. The 2D-analysis demonstrates that the fracture zones and
direction of fracture development are clearly localised and conrms the method convergence with
the mesh renement.

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725

7. Discussion
The present paper analysed a dependence of the failure zones on a choice of the
equivalent stress. It was shown that the mesh-dependent and invariant choices of tensile and
shear stresses involved into the equivalent stress functional dependence provide close results.
On the other hand, selection of the functional dependence is not straightforward and it is not
well developed for kinetic fracture criteria. The present study exhibited that available
functions for the static fracture criteria, being presented as surfaces in a stress space, could be
used for the choice of the equivalent stress in the kinetic fracture criterion. However, there is
no yet good answer how to choose equivalent stress for a wide enough variety of impact
problems. For example, an important parameter affecting fracture at the plugging is temperature
along with stress. There are a number of theories taking the temperature factor into account
under the damage accumulation (e.g, relevant discussion can be found in [26]). However, the
theories can only be tested by independent experiments under controlled temperature in the
shear zone that is not easy to achieve. Because the constants of the fracture criterion were tted
from corresponding impact tests, the results of modelling the plugging problem are
quite reasonable. However, it should be stressed that with the present approach further
investigations are necessary for taking the temperature factor into consideration through an
equivalent stress. One problem, which will need to be looked at, is shown in Fig. 9 with the
equivalent stress combining shear and normal stresses. The present criterion was tted for the
shear banding conditions where high temperature reduces ow stress; this gives us lower fracture
threshold J than that at the room temperature. As a result, this low J has resulted in unlikely
spallation within the plug zone; therefore, the temperature inuence on the equivalent stress is
critical for this problem. Nevertheless, the present calculations veried convergence of the
algorithm; the shear zone is slightly larger for the coarse grid, but no essential mesh sensitivity has
been found.
The present realisation of the split-element algorithm does not consider fragment
interaction. Allowing for the interaction would be of very high computational cost. For a
dominant fragment there is an opportunity in DYNA to introduce dynamically the sides
of elements of the fragment to be considered as those to interact. However, it is unrealistic
at present to control automatically every element side being split, which might interact with
other sides.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to express his appreciation to Livermore Software Technology
Corporation for providing the VecDyna3D manual and a copy of the source code.
Appendix
The algorithm [16] was designed as a procedure for forcing the constants of the constitutive
Eq. (1) to t experimental data of the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) test. Let us consider a

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726

material sample in the stressstrain conditions close to those occurring in the SHPB test. A
uniform deformation of the sample in x-direction is anticipated, that is, the velocity distribution in
the sample is linear: u e  x const: Therefore, the constitutive Eq. (1) can be rewritten in the
following form
ds1
s1
 2G  e 
:
dt
ts1 ; T
Here s2 0; s3 0 and, thus, the stress invariant s in Eq. (1) is proportional to s1 ; for the sake of
convenience s1 substitutes for s in the function t throughout the section. When modelling the
stressstrain response, we can take stress to be s1 and strain to be e  t: The dependence t is
selected according to the dislocation theory of plastic deformation in the following form (see [9]
for details):
t t0

expD=s
:
N0 Ms=2G

At a xed strain rate e  e this function provides stressstrain response of material close to the
ideal elasto-plastic one. The constants N0 and M are dislocation parameters, they are usually not
being varied when tting; therefore, the variable tting parameters are only D and t0 : The SHPB
test data are possible to summarise as values of the yield stress Y against given strain rates e: The
yield limit Y can be associated with a sharp drop of the stress rate ds1 =dt as strain increases;
moreover, for the elasto-plastic response we can assume Y to be a stationary point of solution of
the constitutive equation at which ds1 =dt 0: Therefore, as an approximation, Y is taken to
satisfy the following algebraic equation:
2Ge

Y
:
tY ; T

Ignoring temperature in the present consideration, we can calculate two constants D and t0 of the
function tY using two experimental points (Y1 ; e1 ) and (Y2 ; e2 ). Constants of the constitutive
function t; which have been obtained with this simple algorithm and used in the present paper, are
Steel : t0 280 ms;

D 5:3 GPa; N0 106 1=cm2 ;

M 1011 1=cm2 ;

Al :

t0 831 ms;

D 1:73 GPa;

N0 106 1=cm2 ;

M 1010 1=cm2 ;

Cu :

t0 64:8 ms;

D 2:0 GPa; N0 106 1=cm2 ;

M 1010 1=cm2 :

References to the corresponding experimental data used for the tting can be found in [9].

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