For understanding characteristics of Polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) under impact, the damage behavior of PMMA plates with various thicknesses (1.5 to 6.0 mm) subjected to ballistic impacts with various velocities (63 to 180 m/s) is experimentally investigated using a specialized testing apparatus. Moreover, numerical simulations using the Finite Element Method (FEM) are conducted for the corresponding experimentally studied cases. Ductile response and brittle tensile failure behavior are considered in the FEM to describe the nonlinear response and the failure mode of the PMMA plates. The numerical simulations effectively describe the shape of cracks and perforations of the PMMA plates for all studied 25 cases verifying the validity of the numerical model. Although the PMMA plates are generally brittle in the selected range of impact velocity, it is found that these plates exhibit ductile behavior under low-velocity impacts. Moreover, the numerical simulations imply that the kinetic energy loss of the projectile is linearly dependent on the plate-thickness while the impact velocity hardly affects this loss. This behavior obtained experimentally and numerically illustrates the usefulness of the PMMA material for the use as a protective layer in many applications involving ballistic (high velocity) impacts.
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