Supercomputer modeling of ceramics undergoing high speed impact

This paper reviews work which has been carried out over the past few years using the Eulerian wave code HULL on a Cray2 supercomputer. A wide variety of cases are considered, from the response of bare ceramics to highspeed long-rod impact, to their response with moderate confinement as in the standard Depth Of Penetration test, to their response with very heavy confinement. The latter enables ceramics to completely defeat such a threat by forcing the metal rod to flow radially without penetrating the ceramic at all. Simulations of the influence of cover plates with and without adhesion layers will also be presented.