Reactive Structure and Smart Armor for Army's Future Ground Vehicles
Abstract
An Reactive Structure Technology (RST) is being developed, where a Reactive Structure is defined as a new class of smart structure that can react to external excitations (such as a ballistic or blast impact) in a carefully designed way to counteract the hazardous loading or perform other desired tasks. Two prototypes of the reactive structure have been designed and fabricated for proving the concept of RST. The prototype basically consists of three integrated modules: 1) a structure with changeable configuration embedded with piezoelectric sensors for sensing the impact load; 2) an electronic control module capable of detecting external impacts and driving actuator to change the configuration of the structure; 3) a mechanism used to simulate the ballistic object. Also, an innovative sensor network using piezoelectric pillars has been developed, which can be used in smart armor for detecting the impact location in real time. The technologies developed in this research are expected to be used in applications of the protection of future ground vehicle.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA534904
Entities
People
- Basavaraju Raju
- David Chiyo
- Farzad Rostam-abadi
- Karl Grosh
- Suhasa B. Kodandaramaiah
- Zheng-dong Ma
Organizations
- United States Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center