Rock Strike Testing of Transparent Armor
Abstract
ATPD 2352 is used by the Government to purchase transparent armor for ground combat and tactical vehicles. A Rock Strike requirement is omitted from the present and former revisions of the ATPD. This omission is often cited as a shortcoming of the ATPD. The necessity of such a requirement will be discussed. While there are multiple sources of rock strikes on these vehicles, it is probably the hazards of hand thrown and tire thrown rocks that predominate. Concomitant damage resulting from detonations of IEDs/EFPs etc. is assumed to be battle damage and is not of concern in this specification. 6 and 12 mm ceramic bearings were fired at speeds ranging from 40 to 150 f/s (12 to 46 m/s or 27 to 102 mph). The bearings were used only once. Each speed, diameter, and design category was repeated 24 times. The number of iterations was sufficient to have some confidence in the repeatability of the tests. Two test target design categories were used. One design had a glass face and one had a crystalline glass face. The interlayer adhesive was consistent through both designs and neither had a "spall liner." The glass design had lateral dimensions of 6 x 6 inches while the crystalline glass faced design was 4 x 4 inches. The smaller was chosen to reduce the cost of the coupons and to provide instant identification of the two designs. Neither recipe is a currently supplied armor to prevent problems with proprietary cross-talk. Expected results included lower speed damage thresholds, depth of damage variations, delamination variations, statistical variations of damage, and energy vs. damage correlations. The results indicate that further work is necessary.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 18, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA530816
Entities
People
- David N. Hansen
- Wagner Ashley
Organizations
- United States Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center