Dual-Hardness Titanium Body Armor for Concealable Applications

Abstract

A current need exists to develop a lightweight, low-profile armor system capable of defeating a 7.62x39mm ball round at muzzle velocity. Three design requirements must be met within the development of this system: areal density less than 5lbs/ft2, an overall thickness of less than 8mm, and formability to match torso contours. This study focuses on pure titanium (Ti) (Grade 2) and a single titanium alloy, Ti6Al-4V (Grade 5). Both materials exhibit superplastic behavior to enable shaping to the torso. Initial studies focus on laminate systems of both homogeneous and heterogeneous layered structures to investigate pressure reduction mechanisms. In addition to layered systems, hard front face coatings are studied as an alternative approach to reducing the penetration pressure through initial blunting of the incident projectile. Test configurations are investigated both experimentally and through hydrocode modeling.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2018
Accession Number
AD1060002

Entities

People

  • Berl Mclaurin

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Alloys
  • Armor
  • Body Armor
  • California
  • Ceramic Coatings
  • Ceramic Materials
  • Coatings
  • Composite Materials
  • Dual Hardness
  • Hardness
  • Laminates
  • Materials
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Mechanics
  • Physical Vapor Deposition
  • Projectiles
  • Silicon Carbide
  • Textiles
  • Titanium
  • Titanium Alloys
  • United States
  • United States Naval Academy

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Explosive Engineering.
  • Metallurgy
  • Systems Analysis and Design