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Abstract
Abstract
The resistance offered by three ceramic materials of varying strength that have been subjected to explosive loading has been investigated by depth-of-penetration testing. Each material was completely penetrated by a tungsten carbide cored projectile and the residual penetration into a ductile aluminium alloy backing material was measured. The resulting ballistic performance of each damaged ceramic was found to be similar implying that the resistance offered to the projectile by the damaged ceramic is not dependent on the intrinsic strength properties of the intact material. This was taken as evidence that the important controlling parameter for enhancing the ballistic performance of a damaged ceramic material was not the strength of the ceramic but rather the fragment morphology.
The authors particularly wish to thank Morgan AM&T and ESK for providing free samples for this study. In particular, they would like to thank Mr Eddie Belfield (ESK) and Mr Colin Roberson (Advance Defence Materials Ltd) for their helpful support in this matter. They would also like to acknowledge Mr David Miller for conducting the firings and Mr Andrew Roberts for this technical support. The majority of this work was carried out during the project phase of an Explosive Ordnance Engineering MSc course at Cranfield University (Shrivenham).