Research Summaries

Back Advanced Body Armor Materials for Lightweight XSAPI Plate Development

Fiscal Year 2021
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Physics
Investigator(s) Gamache, Raymond
Sponsor Marine Corps Systems Command (Marine Corps)
Summary A recent discovery related to an increase in strength of boron carbide (B4C) was observed when a small amount of silicon (Si) is added to the B4C powder prior to pressing. When the equivalent of one Si atom per B4C unit cell is added both the strength and avoidance of an existing catastrophic failure within B4C is observed. This is an important finding where higher pressure applications including the X Threat Small Arms Protective Insert (XSAPI) where increased impact pressures occur from the higher threat round prevented the application of B4C. Current XSAPI hard plate designs must incorporate higher density ceramics including SiC and Al2O3. This proposed effort will optimize the inclusion of Si within B4C to enable the highest strength and most efficient (cost effective) process to manufacture the front ceramic plate for XSAPI as well as Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert (ESAPI) applications. Variables including stoichiometric ratios as well as pressing conditions (temperature and pressure) will be investigated and correlated to dynamic strength.
Keywords
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal