Functional Ceramic Materials Database:  An Online Resource for Materials Research (original) (raw)

Tno's Research on Ceramic Based Armor

Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings, 2015

Several specially designed experimental techniques including an alternative test method have been developed for the evaluation of ceramic based armor. Armor grade ceramics and a range of combined materials have been tested using 7.62 AP rounds. Using the energy method [12] the dwell-time and total energy absorbed from the AP core were determined. In additional tests time-resolved fracturing of the ceramic tile (fragments) was recorded using high-speed video at one million frames per second. Also the particle size distribution of the fragments were measured in order to determine the total fracture surface area. The information provided by the results of all tests has resulted in an energy-based engineering model that allows calculation of the dwell-time, erosion and residual velocity of an AP-core. The model predicts the mass and velocity of residual AP cores rather well assuming a failure period during which the intact ceramic material transfers into a massively broken medium. The model does not require detailed mechanical properties of the ceramic materials. This reflects the difficulty within the ceramic armor research community to find a relation between mechanical properties and ballistic efficiency of armor ceramics. The developed engineering model creates a renewed understanding of the relevant phenomena, that could explain the ballistic efficiency of ceramic armor.