THE SYNERGISTIC ROLES OF HIGH STRENGTH GLASS COMPOSITE AND ALUMINA CERAMIC FACING IN LIGHTWEIGHT COMPOSITE ARMOR AGAINST ARMOR PIERCING PROJECTILES

摘要

The mechanisms for defeating an armor piercing projectile threat using ceramic-faced fiberglass composite armor will be discussed. Composite materials display an exceptional energy absorption capacity when compared on the basis of weight with monolithic systems. However, the penetrating capabilities of modern armorpiercing projectiles are known to overwhelm fabric-based composite armor, necessitating the addition of a hard material to face the armor. The resulting system can be viewed as macro-composite in which each component of system has a role in defeating the threat. In this paper, the mechanisms and roles of an S-2 Glass fiberglass composite and alumina tiles of a ceramic-faced composite armor system in defeating an armor-piercing round are identified and discussed. A predictive model for the ballistic protection behavior of a ceramic-faced fiberglass composite armor system is presented and validated with experimental data.