As a typical material for fragmentation warheads, the mechanical behavior and
ballistic penetration performance of 10# steel are critical for assessing
warhead lethality. To characterize the dynamic response of 10# steel, systematic
experiments were conducted, including quasi-static tensile tests,
split-Hopkinson tensile bar tests, and thermal softening measurements.
A = 505.46 MPa, B = 292.84 MPa,
n = 0.335, C = 0.0343, and
m = 1.213 are the calibrated Johnson–Cook parameters.
Bridgman-corrected notched tensile tests determined damage parameters
D1 to D4:
0.065, 0.746, −0.646, and 0.031). A study of its constitutive behavior shows
that the strength of 10# steel increases with stress triaxiality and strain
rate, whereas increasing temperature enhances ductility and reduces strength.
Finite element software was updated to include the calibrated parameters to
develop a material model for ballistic impact simulation. When compared with the
ballistic penetration test results obtained using a 14.5 mm projectile, the
simulated residual velocities show less than 5% deviation from the measured
values. 3D scanning reveals that fragment sizes in experimental data differ by
under 10% from simulation predictions. This work enables precise numerical
simulations for warhead fragmentation prediction and lightweight armor
design.