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EVALUATION OF LIGHT CERAMICS FOR BALLISTIC PROTECTION EVALUATION DES CERAMIQUES LEGERES POUR PROTECTION BALISTIQUE A Thesis Submitted To the Faculty of the Royal Military College of Canada by Cezar Constantin Craciun In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering May, 2009 © This thesis may be used within the Department of National Defence, but copyright for open publication remains the property of the author Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-66042-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-66042-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ••I Canada Ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. I. E. Boros for his support along each step of the project and his confidence in my work and abilities to reach the final destination of this extended journey. I would also like to recognize the contribution of Dr. Petru Lucuta and his entire family, who made possible the production of most of the materials tested in the present research. Specific thanks must go to Guy Bergeron from Defence Research and Development Canada - Valcartier as well as to Dominique Proulx and Pierre Vieillette from Munitions Experimental Test Centre in Valcartier for their invaluable contribution to the experimental testing program. Many thanks are dedicated to Mechanical Engineering staff, which made my work at RMC both fruitful and pleasant. And last, but not least, my thoughts of gratitude go to the three emotional pillars of my life; my mother Georgeta, my wife Floriana and my daughter Natalie-Maria. IV ABSTRACT Craciun Cezar C. M.A.Sc. (Mech. Eng.). Royal Military College of Canada. May 2009. Evaluation of Light Ceramics for Ballistic Protection Supervisor: Dr. I. E. Boros. Newly developed ceramic materials have become the material of choice in many modern applications. About half a century ago, ceramics started to be included in armour systems that provide ballistic protection to personnel and equipment on the modern battlefield. Due to the continued development of various threats, particularly small arms ammunition with increased penetrating capabilities, the modern ceramic based armour must improve its stopping characteristics in order to remain efficient. Presently, the interaction between the projectile and the ceramic is not completely understood; therefore no theory can fully describe or simulate all the complex processes taking place at the moment of impact. Research aimed at improving the quality of armour grade ceramic relies mostly on experimental study, with depth of penetration (DOP) being one of the most common testing methods used to characterize the effectiveness of such ceramics. In the present study, three modern ceramics, namely silicon carbide, boron carbide and CERAMOR® with various areal densities and with or without front covering materials have been compared with the one already in use on the CC-130 Hercules V aircraft. The comparison was based on the length of the penetration of an armour piercing projectile in a polycarbonate block, after impacting a ceramic tile. All the three modern ceramic materials outperformed the alumina, at lower areal densities compared with the alumina. The results confirmed the need to replace the obsolete ceramic currently in use on the CC-130 Hercules aircraft. Based on this study, further ballistic testing of complete armour systems would be required to finalize the selection process. VI RESUME Craciun Cezar C. M.A.Sc. (Genie Mecanique). College Militaire Royal du Canada. May 2009. Evaluation des Ceramiques Legeres pour Protection Balistique Superviseur: Dr. I. E. Boros. Les materiaux a base de ceramiques recemment developpes constituent des materiaux de choix pour des applications modernes. Depuis presque un demi-siecle, on a commence a inclure des ceramiques dans des systemes de blindage offrant une protection balistique pour les militaires et les equipements sur les champs de bataille. Parce que les menaces ont evolues, surtout en ce qui concerne les projectiles perforants de petits calibres, il s'avere necessaire d'augmenter le pouvoir d'arret de projectiles des blindages contenant ces ceramiques afin de pouvoir continuer a les utiliser. Le processus d'interaction entre le projectile et la ceramique n'est pas entierement compris. C'est pourquoi aucune theorie ne peut decrire ou simuler exactement les evenements complexes qui ont lieu au moment de l'impact. La recherche visant 1'amelioration de la qualite des ceramiques utilisees dans des blindages est, consequemment, strictement experimentale, la methode de profondeur de penetration (PDP) etant le plus souvent utilisee pour faire la caracterisation de telles ceramiques. vii Dans la presente etude, la performance de trois ceramiques modemes (carbure de silice, carbure de bor et CERAMOR®) avec des densites sur surface differentes a ete comparee a celle de la ceramique couramment utilisee dans les avions CC-130 Hercules. La comparaison a ete basee sur la distance parcourue par un projectile perforant dans du polycarbonate, apres avoir impacte une piece de ceramique. Tous les ceramiques modernes ont eu une meilleure performance, meme a une densite sur surface plus bas que celle d'alumina. Les resultats ont confirme la necessite de remplacer la ceramique devenue obsolete encore utilisee a bord des avions CC-130 Hercules. II s'averera cependant necessaire d'effectuer des essais balistiques plus pousses sur des systemes de blindage complets, afin de confirmer la selection des ceramiques sur la base des donnees obtenues au cours de la presente etude. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iv RESUME vi TABLE OF CONTENTS viii LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF TABLES xii LIST OF ACRONYMS (ABBREVIATIONS) xiii LIST OF SYMBOLS xv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 1 1.2 OBJECTIVE 4 1.3 SCOPE 5 1.4 THESIS OUTLINE 6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1 SMALL PROJECTILES 8 2.2 ARMOUR MATERIALS 13 2.2.1 Metals 14 2.2.2 Continuous Fibre Reinforced Composites (CFRC) 15 2.2.3 Ceramics 15 2.3 CERAMIC MANUFACTURING 22 2.3.1 Ceramic Forming 22 2.3.2 Ceramic Hardening 23 2.3.3 Ceramic Hot Pressing 23 2.3.4 Reaction Bonded Ceramic 24 2.4 ARMOUR USE OF CERAMICS 25 2.5 COMBINED ARMOUR 29 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON BALLISTIC IMPACT 32 3.1 ELASTIC IMPACT 32 3.2 IMPACT DAMAGE 41 3.3 ARMOUR CHARACTERISTICS 49 3.3.1 Impact on Metals 52 3.3.2 Impact on Continuous Fibre Reinforced Composites 54 3.3.3 Impact on Ceramics 55 3.3.4 Armour Ceramic Improvements 77 3.4 TYPES OF BALLISTIC TESTS 89 3.5 DOP TEST 94 IX CHAPTER 4: EXPERIMENTAL TESTING 100 4.1 PRELIMINARY WORK- DROP TOWER IMPACT APPARATUS.... 100 4.2 DOP EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM 104 4.2.1 Protection Level /Projectile Selection 105 4.2.2 Experimental Set up Apparatus 108 4.2.2.1 Backing 108 4.2.2.2 Clamping System-the lig 110 4.2.2.3 Ceramic - Polycarbonate Adhesive 112 4.2.3 Ceramic Samples 114 4.2.3.1 Tiles Minimum Dimensions 116 4.2.3.2 Alumina Tiles 117 4.2.3.3 Boron Carbide Tiles 119 4.2.3.4 CERAMOR® Tiles 119 4.2.3.5 Silicon Carbide Tiles 121 4.2.4 The Firing Range 122 4.2.5 Targets Tested. 125 4.2.6 DOP Measuring Method 132 CHAPTER 5: RESULTS 133 CHAPTER 6: INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS 143 6.1 FLAT VERSUS MAP FOR POROUS CERAMOR® 143 6.2 POROUS VERSUS DENSE FOR CERAMOR-MAP® 144 6.3 SPALL COVER INFLUENCE ON CERAMOR-MAP® 145 6.4 FLAT VERSUS MAP FOR SILICON CARBIDE 146 6.5 THICKNESS INFLUENCE ON BORON CARBIDE 146 6.6 MATERIAL INFLUENCE FOR HIGH AREAL DENSITY TILES 147 6.7 MATERIAL INFLUENCE FOR LOW AREAL DENSITY TILES 148 CHAPTER 7: DISCUSSION 150 7.1 LIMITATIONS 150 7.2 TEST VALIDITY 151 7.3 SPALL COVER EFFECT 152 7.4 INFLUENCE OF LATERAL CONFINEMENT 153 7.5 SHATTERING PATTERN FOR A1203, SiC AND B4C 154 7.6 DOP AND EFFECT ON PROJECTILE FOR A1203, SiC AND