Development of Aluminum Nitride: A New Low-Cost Armor

摘要

High performance and low cost are the two essential requirements necessary foradvanced ceramics to be considered for incorporation into future armor systems. This work involved a comprehensive program, focused on aluminum nitride based ceramics, which examined the critical ceramic processing parameters and studied the impact these modifications had on ballistic performance. The accomplished objective was to demonstrate that low-cost fabrication methods could be utilized to produce high performance AlN based ceramics. Using a spray-dry, dry-press, pressureless sintering process, thick tiles were produced with ballistic performance equivalent to hot-pressed AlN materials. While penetration resistance against the long rod penetrator (LRP) was the ultimate measure of performance, several other ballistic tests were also performed. Ballistic limits were obtained for ceramic targets with a .30 caliber AP simulant and penetration tests were performed against .50 caliber APDS and SLAP rounds. These tests were used as screening tools to guide AIN powder and sintering aid optimization. Aluminum nitride, Sintering, Powders, Processing, Armor, Ballistic performance, Dynamic properties, AlN/SIC Composites, Silicon carbide.