How HMS Warrior's armor was tested

Was HMS Warrior's armor live-fire tested before it was fitted?

Its armor concepts and components had already been tested over several years. The answer distinguishes that development work from a dedicated trial program for Warrior herself.

Iron plate had already been used ashore, so designers did not begin with a blank slate when protecting early ironclads. British trials in the years before Warrior tested the separate elements rather than waiting to fire at a completed ship. Those experiments informed the thickness of the iron, the use of teak rather than oak as backing, and the way plates overlapped. Warrior's protection was innovative as a complete shipboard system, but its principal materials and arrangements had already been subjected to live-fire study.