Advanced Materials Enable Robust Composite Armour: Focus
Advanced Materials Enable Robust Composite Armour: Focus
Advanced Materials Enable Robust Composite Armour: Focus
116
EUROSATORY FOCUS
strong fibre-matrix interfacial adhesion at stnjctural loading rates, and weak rnterfacial
strength at ballistic loading rates, they would
Stnjcturai Composite
behave structurally under vehicle loads, yet
absorb energy like an armour-grade composite
EPDM
under ballistic impact. The result would be an
optimized
multi-functional armour composite.
Ceramic (Alumina)
Recent research has indicated that this may be
Armor Tiles
prassible through innovative manipulation of the
PMC Outer Face-sheet
chemical and physical interactions between the
matrix and fibres.
Woven and non160 n
woven fabrics constructed using contin140uous glass-fibre reinforcements are com_ 120monly used in PMCs.
During
industrial
100glass-fibre manufacturing a multi-compo80nent thin coating,
known as a sizing, is
? 60applied to the fibres
for protection against
40damage during processing and to control
20their performance in
composite articles.
Conventional glass"Struchiro
ARL Hybrid
fibre sizings incorpoFibef Siiing
Fibar Siting
Fiber Sizing
rate organo-functional
molecules, known as
Figure 3: Mechanical Performance of Composite with
silane
coupling
Various Sizing. The ARL Sizing Shows Exceptional
agents, to enhance
Performance in both Energy Absorption (Shwon in Green)
the adhesion between
and Compressive Strenght (Shwon in Orange).
the glass-fibre reinforcement and the
grade composites are resin starved, consisting
polymeric matrix and to increase the durability
of approximately 80% weight fibre, and are
of the composite. The complex chemical and
engineered to readily delaminate. which enphysical interactions due to the silane coupling
ables the high-strength, high-modulus fibres to
agent result in the formation of a nanometreelongate and absorb the impact energy. These
sized interphase region between the glass-fibre
non-structural annour textiles are highly mass
surface and the polymeric matrix.
efficient, and there are a number of composite
The interphase region that surrounds glassvehicle armour appliqus that incorporate
fibres in a composite is essential to its perforthem. However, they serve only to increase balmance, yet Is poorly understood. For example.
listic protection, not support load. Composites
existing traditional fibre sizings are not optimbeing considered for FCS vehicle applications
ised to tailor simultaneously a composite's
are being designed to be multifunctional, and
static and dynamic response. Yet. it has been
as in the CAV detailed above, the FCS comrecognised that these sizings affect structural
posite armour will be an integral part of the
durability, impact resistance, and damage tolvehicle, carrying typical vehicle kinematic
erance.
loads.
Published research indicates that the impact
These composites under development are
response of a PMC can be tailored for highcomparable to traditional structural composites
energy absorption by designing weak fibre-mahaving approximately 50% volume fibre. While
trix interfacial interactions. Conversely, structuefficient for carrying load, composites used for
ral performance (strength) is achieved by strong
structural armour are not as mass efficient balfibre-matrix interfacial interactions. Hence, the
iistically as their armour grade counterparts.
aforementioned trade-offs exist. Although the
However, if these composites were to possess
achievement of simultaneous high strength and
energy absorption levels is desirable, the technology has not been available. New approaches are now being introduced to overcome
these traditional materials shortcomings.
The glass-fibre sizing research being performed at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL)
has systematically examined the nature of the
glass-fibre/thermosetting polymer interphase
J Phenolic Inner Liner
Secondary
Adhesive
Bonds
TTie Authors are at the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate. US Army Research Laboratory at
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. This paper was first
pubiished in "The AMPTIAC Quarterly" magazine, and
it is reproduced here through courtesy.
Milttary Technology MILTECH
6/200B
117
EUROSATORY FOCUS
region to develop the fundamental understanding necessary to propose and validate an entirely new class of sizing materials. Specifically,
mixed organo-functional silane coupling agents
are being employed to vary the chemical reactivity toward the polymeric matrix phase to produce bond strengths that are dependent on the
viscoelastic properties of the matrix and fibrecoating. This results in an inherent "viscoelastic
switch" at the fibre-matrix interphase that
yields strong fibre-matrix interactions (high
Benefits include:
- Provides lighter weight, survivable platforms with light, affordable
armour that meets FCS ORD requirements;
- Reduces cycle time and cost of manufacturing by 25-40%;
- Reduces structural armour processing time by 50%;
- Improves ballistic performance by 10% in production environment;
- Manufacturing technology transitions to vehicle integrators (Vis) for
a chassis production in FY09;
- Manufacturing technoiogy transitions to Vis for B(x) assembly and
B3 materials production in FY09-11.
118
During FY03-FY07, structural A and B1 armour processing technologies were benchmarked; critical areas for improvement of cycle
time and material availability were identified; model centric manufacturing practices for vehicle integration demonstrated; ceramic tile
joining to metallic and composite armour structure in a manufacturing environment demonstrated; joining of dissimilar blast resistant A
structure demonstrated; and the cost of hot-pressed SiC armour tiles
has been reduced from $135/lb. to $85/lb.
Build-to-Print Ceramic/Composite Armour - The current goal of
this programme is to reduce costs by making the ceramic facial
upper half of the armour system using an automated process rather
than current labour-intensive manual processes. Production methods of manufacturing, including prepreg or, where applicable, vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM), rapid lay-up tooling,
and adhesive bonding, have been applied to emerging B(x) armour
formulations. Plans are in place to manufacture actual FCS maturation structures using the developed technologies.
Hot-pressed SiC Armour Tile Production - Efforts continue to
develop a state-of-the-art semi-continuous production line for rapid
hot pressing of SiC-N tiles. The prototype line is now operational and
a campaign run of qualification tiles is being produced. Two high
speed precision grinders are now on line and will significantly reduce
grinding cost, which is the single largest cost of producing tiles with
current manufacturing practices.
Low Cost Titanium Components for Armour Appiications Manufacturing of T-6AI-4V plates via direct powder rolling (DPR),
cold iso-static pressing (CIP) followed by sintering was demonstrated. These plates met MIL-DTL- 46077F and were produced with low
cost hydrogenated titanium powder and sodium reduced titanium
powder.
(Source: Army ManTech Manager, RDCOM/ARL)
EUROSATORY FOCUS
using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Glass
reinforced composite materials were manufactured using these specialised fabrics, and the
structural and impact energy responses were
measured. Fig. 4 captures the impact energy
absorption and structural performance of composites produced using state-of-the-art commercial sizings and the ARL inorganic-organic
hybrid sizings. These results show the traditional trade-offs found when using commercially
available fibres that have been coated with
either a stnjctural or ballistic sizing. In comparison, these trade-offs do not exist for the ARL
inorganic-organic hybrid sizing, and the impact
and structural performance of this optimized
sizing are both excellent. A 40% increase in the
energy absorption of composites fabricated
with no loss in stmctural properties will enable
the use of PMCs in ballistic applications where
they have not been used previously, perhaps
with reduced cost.
Advances in Modelling
Until a few years ago, there was no definitive
computational model for ceramics and highvelocity impact calculations of fibre-reinforced
composites were a research task. These limitations in numerical techniques and robust material models resulted in much of the design of
composite armour systems being guided by
The modelling of ballistic impacts into composite materials has evolved from two different
analysis methodologies. One set of models has
been developed from the analysts of high
velocity impacts into metallic materials, where
the response of the material is governed by
wave propagation. The second set has been
developed from the quasi-static damage
mechanics analysis of composite materials. In
the former case, the behaviour of a material is
modelled by analysing the hydrostatic and deviatoric components of stress. However, due to
its inherent orthotropy. decoupling of the stress
tensor of a composite material proves to be
problematic: there are terms related to the
devlatoric stress that affect the hydrostatic
components and vice versa. Nonetheless, with
suitable assumptions and corrections. Anderson and co-workers overcame this issue, and
several models have evolved using this formulation. These models have proven unique in
that they allow a polynomial equation of state
to be utilized, which has proven important in
the analysis ot armour grade composites and
for hypervelocity impact simulations.
The present model, developed by the
Materials Sciences Corporation (MSC) and the
US Army Research Laboratory, has been generalisd from the quasi-static damage mechanics analysis of composite materials. Further
improvements of this model have recently been
Figure 6: Experimental Set-ups for Quasistanic and Drop Tower Punch Shear Experiments, Simulation of the Punch Shear Experiment
and a Comparison of the Load vs. Displacement Curves from the Experiment and the Finite Element Analysis.
Quasistatic Punch Shear Experiments
Di5plocement, cm
120
6/2008
EUROSATORY FOCUS
Stel P
Compoile Tile
Support loyer
800
OO
aoo
Gto Composite Backing
200
122
EUROSATORY FOCUS
this baseline case is given in Fig. 8. From this
figure, it can be seen that the deceleration
curve of the FSP has three distinct portions: an
initial steep deceleration up to approximately
35 |js, a transition region from roughly 35-45
|js, and a final, more moderate deceleration
curve from 45-90 ps.
By observing the plots of the material damage through time, an understanding of the
mechanisms behind these regions becomes
discernible. The initial rapid deceleration is
caused by the hard ceramic deforming the
FSP. During this time, the ceramic itself fails, its
failure starting on the surface opposite the
impact surface due to the tensile reflections
from the initial compressive stress wave. In Fig,
8, green regions indicate undamaged material,
and coloured regions indicate material that is
either plastically deformed or damaged. The
cyan colour of the projectile indicates that it is
plastically deforming. For the composite, the
cyan and orange colouring indicates transverse
shear damage, the purple indicates in-plane
tensile failure and for all materials, red indicates
bulk failure. The cracking of the ceramic leads
to the formation of a conoid (a cone of ceramic
material under the impactor) which loads the
backing plates.
Extensive transverse shear damage mechanisms appear in all of the composites by 20 |jsThe initial deceleration of the projectile transitions to a more moderate deceleration of the
projectile at approximately 30 ^JS, and it is at
this time that the damaged composites have
displaced enough locally to allow the failed
ceramic in the conoid to start moving, both in
the direction of the projectile and laterally, out
of the way of the projectile. The effectiveness of
the ceramic diminishes greatly from 30 ps to 45
ps. After 45 ps, the damaged glass/epoxy composite catches both the ceramic rubble and the
plastically deformed projectile.
Summary
The application of polymer-matn"x composite materials to armour systems has principally
been driven by the need to increase performance (survivability) in very lightweight fighting
vehicles. The stringent weight requirements for
these types of applications have provided the
motivation for the development of multi-functional armour systems. Ceramic-composite
armour systems have been developed to provide ballistic protection from a range of battlefield threats and also serve as the vehicle
structure.
Substantial progress has been made in the
development of materials technology for lightweight fighting vehicles, including advances in
fibre sizings that have been formulated to provide strain-rate sensitive response (strong
fibre-matrix interfacial adhesion at structural
loading rates, and weak interfacial strength at
ballistic loading rates). Additionally, the development, characterisation and validation of improved material constitutive models have allowed ballistic experiments to be studied using
numerical simulations, which have provided
new insight into how the materials behave and
interact during impact. Further advances in
materials technology and their incorporation
into lightweight armour will focus on the
increased integration of multifunctionality, such
as the incorporation of power storage, communication, sensing, and health monitoring. Numerical simulations will allow engineers to
examine the influence of multifunctional materials on improving the performance of ceramic
composite armour that will be utilised in future
combat systems.
isa