Ballistic testing of of armour grade ceramics
conference paper
Armour grade ceramic materials are used in ceramic based armour systems in vehicles and body armour. Ceramic based armour provides light-weight solutions against a range of threats, including armour piercing bullets.
Generally, the ceramic is supported by a backing material that typically is a fibre composite (like aramid or UHMW-PE) or a metal. The function of the ceramic is to erode the core of the AP round and to distribute the dynamic loading over a wider area of the backing material. The function of the backing material is to prevent fragments (ceramic or projectile) to penetrate and absorb the (remaining) kinetic energy of the system.
The ballistic efficiency of a ceramic based armour highly depends on the performance of its ceramic component. Using the Residual Energy Method (REM) on bare ceramic tiles, the efficiency of the ceramic to erode and decelerate the AP core can be determined. Using a bare tile allows a pure ceramic-projectile interaction, which can be very reproducibly tested. In the test the mass and velocity of the residual AP core are measured, hence the loss in kinetic energy of the core is known. Also, the diameter of the first axially responding part of the rear of the tile is determined (from high-speed video recording), which provides information about the cone-crack angle.
Using several ceramic tiles that have the same areal densiry (AD : p * t) their ballistic efficiency can be determined and used to rank them. Examples are provided of REM results obtained with (armour grade) SiC tiles of various suppliers.
Generally, the ceramic is supported by a backing material that typically is a fibre composite (like aramid or UHMW-PE) or a metal. The function of the ceramic is to erode the core of the AP round and to distribute the dynamic loading over a wider area of the backing material. The function of the backing material is to prevent fragments (ceramic or projectile) to penetrate and absorb the (remaining) kinetic energy of the system.
The ballistic efficiency of a ceramic based armour highly depends on the performance of its ceramic component. Using the Residual Energy Method (REM) on bare ceramic tiles, the efficiency of the ceramic to erode and decelerate the AP core can be determined. Using a bare tile allows a pure ceramic-projectile interaction, which can be very reproducibly tested. In the test the mass and velocity of the residual AP core are measured, hence the loss in kinetic energy of the core is known. Also, the diameter of the first axially responding part of the rear of the tile is determined (from high-speed video recording), which provides information about the cone-crack angle.
Using several ceramic tiles that have the same areal densiry (AD : p * t) their ballistic efficiency can be determined and used to rank them. Examples are provided of REM results obtained with (armour grade) SiC tiles of various suppliers.
Topics
TNO Identifier
1017962
Publisher
TNO
Source title
17th Personal Armour Systems Symposium (PASS 2025) - Personal Armour, Bruges, Belgium, 22-26 September 2025
Pages
458-464
Files
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