Understanding the ballistic event: methodology and initial observations.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Ballistics
• Fracture Mechanics

Background:

• Developing advanced ceramic materials for armor applications requires detailed analysis of projectile impact events.
• Existing testing methods may not fully capture fragment characteristics crucial for understanding material failure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To accelerate the development of ceramic armor by improving information retrieval from high-energy projectile impacts.
• To introduce a novel ballistic gel technique for capturing and analyzing fragments from impact events.
• To compare fragment characteristics across different ceramic types (alumina, silicon carbide, boron carbide) under ballistic and biaxial stress.

Main Methods:

• Modification of a test configuration to include ballistic gel for fragment capture.
• High-energy projectile impact testing of ceramic tiles (alumina, silicon carbide, boron carbide).
• Ring-on-ring biaxial disc testing for comparative analysis.
• Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and stereo imaging for fracture surface analysis and roughness quantification.

Main Results:

• Ballistic fragments from tile edges and biaxial fragments exhibited indistinguishable fracture surfaces across all tested ceramics.
• Alumina and boron carbide fragments closer to impact points were similar to biaxial fragments.
• Silicon carbide fragments showed increased porosity near impact zones, attributed to the loss of a boron-rich second phase.

Conclusions:

• The developed ballistic gel technique effectively captures fragments, maintaining their positions for detailed analysis.
• Fracture surface analysis indicates similarities between ballistic and biaxial testing, with notable exceptions in silicon carbide.
• The observed porosity in silicon carbide warrants further investigation regarding its impact on ballistic performance, highlighting the technique's utility for future studies.