In this work, we conducted MD simulations to demonstrate that the ballistic limit velocity and the specific penetration energy of SiC/polyurea multilayers are significantly higher than the experimentally measured values of other protective materials.
Moreover, we demonstrated that the specific penetration energy of a nanoscale target with a given material composition can be remarkably improved (over 75%) by optimizing the individual layer thickness and their arrangement within the target.
Our results reveal a potential bottom-up design pathway for developing superior protective materials for extreme engineering applications.
A video abstract of the article is available here. Molecular dynamics (LAMMPS) and density functional theory (VASP) models used to compute the force-field parameters to describe the nonbonded interactions between silicon carbide and polyurea can be downloaded from here.