The paper studies penetrating armour plates from the steel alloys such as Armox 560T, Domex protect 500, Weldox 700 E, Hardox 400, and Armstal 500, which are used for armour protection. In all tests for five different thick (6 mm, 8 mm, 10 mm, 6 + 6 mm, and 8 + 8mm) plates was used one of the most common bullets, i.e. a 7.62 mm "APM2" (hard steel core) bullet with an impact velocity of 830 m / s and 920 m / s. The article presents the developed rational finite element models of plates and bullets, which allow us to obtain results with acceptable accuracy and minimum time of solution using the LS-DYNA solver. Predicts the rational thickness values and the steel properties to ensure protection according to the European standard EN1063 ("BR7"). Also conducts analysis of influence of the friction coefficient on the results of numerical simulation.

The main results of calculations include the residual velocity and kinetic energy of the bullet after penetrating and the pattern of the plate fracture mechanism (for each plate type and thickness). As a result of the studies, it was found that the monolayer 6 mm, 8 mm and 10 mm thick plates from all the investigated steel alloys do not provide a protection level of "BR7" (with an initial bullet velocity of 830 m / s) and, on the other hand, the two-layer plates from the alloys Armox 560T, Domex protect 500, and Armstal 500 with a total thickness of 12 mm provide such level of protection. It was also revealed that the influence of the coefficient of friction on the resistance to the bullet penetration is very small, so friction can be neglected.

At an initial velocity of 920 m / s a bullet penetrated two-layer 6x2 mm thick plates from all the steel alloys under consideration, while with a thickness of 8x2 mm the bullet could not penetrate (except the Weldox 700E alloy plate).