Impact Spectrum and Fragment Visualization Facility for Studying Armor Materials
Abstract
Studying the failure and fragmentation characteristics of a projectile core and amor is critical to our understanding of the interaction mechanisms of the projectile and target, as well as the subsequent penetration ability and target defeat behavior. Specifically, the rate-dependent impact failure and fragmentation characteristics of ceramic and polymer composite systems requires highly-resolved analysis coupled with in-situ diagnostics to understand the penetration/perforation behavior and the emission spectra of the impact; allowing for temporal evolution of the impact event and atomic and molecular composition of the impact vapor plume to be fully understood. When combined with our current in-house two-stage light-gas gun facility and optical ultra-high speed imaging systems, the proposed facility will provide such information. The potential insight gained from this facility is particularly crucial in the development of lightweight protective configurations, where armor materials often utilize fracture and fragmentation as a primary means of energy dissipation, and in many cases tailored composition changes as an additional energy dissipation pathway from an oncoming threat. We propose to create an integrated system comprised of an existing in-house experimental facility conducting hypervelocity normal and oblique impact of projectiles on ceramic and polymer composite targets at velocities from 1 to 6 km/s (USPTO# 62112690) with a new visualization capability for spectral measurements of impact plums, x-ray imaging of target penetration/perforation and resulting fragmentation, with post-mortem diagnostics to characterize target damage and fragment 3D and chemistry construct. Hypervelocity impact gives rise to pressures in the Mbar range and strain-rates that can exceed 107 s -1 , providing critical amor characterization information of direct interest to the Office of Naval Research mission. The proposed integrated experiments with the new spectral and fragmentation visualization facility will be performed in-house and the complex multiphysics information from the experiments will provide salient information to modeling and simulation predictive capability. The requested diagnostic equipment will supply a wealth of temporal and spatially-resolved impact and impact defeat data that will form the basis for any validation or verification modeling needs for real-life threat applications. Additionally, the proposed facility will provide collaborative research opportunities between undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral research scholars in dynamic behavior of materials research
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 15, 2023
- Source ID
- N000142312395
Entities
People
- Leslie Lamberson
Organizations
- Colorado School of Mines
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy