Scientific Development and Characterization of a Soft Armor Inspection System for Body and Vehicle Ballistic Armor: Phase I Final Report

Abstract

Composite body armors are subjected to extreme in-service and environmental stresses, such as extreme temperature changes. Evaluating body armor property (e.g., materials and thickness), in particular variations of thickness from its nominal value, is of great interest. Microwave nondestructive testing and evaluation techniques (NDT and E), using open-ended rectangular waveguide probes have been successfully developed and used for evaluating materials properties and thickness in stratified composite structures, which are similar to a body armor, and even those that are significantly more complex in design. Microwave NDT and E techniques have improved and advanced over a period of more than two decades during which the efficacy of the analytical formulations and measurement tools significantly increase the accuracy associated with this type of evaluation. This technique was used in this study to evaluate body armor properties. Additionally, the efficacy of the wideband frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar approach was demonstrated (on a limited basis) to illustrate its potential utility for thickness evaluation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 15, 2019
Accession Number
AD1084566

Entities

People

  • Brian T. Scott
  • John Gallion
  • Mohammad Tayeb Ghasr
  • Reza Zoughi
  • Robert Haynes
  • Russell Austin
  • Tyrone Jones

Organizations

  • Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Bandwidth
  • Body Armor
  • Boron Carbides
  • Composite Materials
  • Composite Structures
  • Computers
  • Detectors
  • Dielectric Permittivity
  • Dielectric Properties
  • Dielectrics
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Frequency Bands
  • K Band
  • Measurement
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Wave Power
  • X-Ray Computed Tomography

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Microwave Engineering.