Embedded Non-Destructive Evaluation for Glass Armor

摘要

The U.S. Army has developed a new kind of armor protection for vehicles which consists of several glass plates. The plates are inserted in a plastic box and epoxy material is used to prevent the plates from being damaged by moving inside the box. To prevent the plates from chipping, the plastic box is encased in a steel box. The typical NDE procedure for this type of armor is to check for cracked plates using a high intensity X-ray machine. However the X- ray equipment is relatively expensive and usually not available in theater. Dismounting the cubes from the vehicle for the purpose of inspection is also inconvenient and quite labor intensive. We have developed a new method of NDE which is inexpensive, available everywhere (the testing apparatus is inside the cube) and the output is readily understandable.