Study of Polyurea Application in Ceramic Armour Module Against Long Rod Projectile

Abstract

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the potential application of polyurea in a ceramic armour against long rod projectiles. The Dragonshield-BC polyurea was used in this study. The baseline armour module configuration consisted of a 5 mm thick steel cover plate, 20 mm thick SiC tile and 10 mm thick steel backing plate. The layer of polyurea was added either between the cover plate and ceramic or behind the backing plate. The armour modules were subjected to normal impact by tungsten alloy long rod projectiles at a nominal impact velocity of 1.25 km/s. A witness block made of AISI 4340 steel was placed behind the armour module to capture the residual projectile. Armour module performance was assessed using mass efficiency. This study revealed that polyurea enhanced cover plate could improve ceramic armour performance depending on configuration. The four configurations were: (1) 2 mm thick polyurea bonded to cover plate, (2) 4 mm thick polyurea bonded to cover plate, (3) 2 mm polyurea interlayer without bonding with cover plate and, (4) 2 mm polyurea bonded to 2 mm thick cover plate. Of the four configurations tested, only one showed at least 45% improvement in mass efficiency while the rest had little or no effect.