S4: Armor Ceramics – Challenges and New Developments

Ceramic and glass materials demonstrate significantly higher ballistic efficiencies than homogeneous metals when properly combined with other materials. Consequently, lightweight ceramic and glass armor technologies have been developed for protection against a wide variety of threats. However, our knowledge and understanding on the effects of ceramic composition and multi-scale structure on the fundamental damage and deformation mechanisms that govern strength and penetration resistance has been limited, especially under dynamic loading conditions. This has hindered development of advanced materials through traditional, advanced, and materials-by-design approaches.

This symposium is an opportunity for attendees from industry, academia, and government organizations to openly discuss new developments in basic and applied research on various aspects of the processing/structure/properties/performance relationships for armor ceramic and glass materials. In addition to the proposed sessions, sessions with invited speakers on the following focus topics will be held: projectile/ceramic interactions; processing/design of hierarchically structured bodies; diamond-based composites development, and advances in transparent ceramics and glasses. Contributing presentations addressing either proposed or focus sessions are welcome.

Proposed sessions

• Fundamental terminal ballistic behavior
• Ceramic and glass science and engineering
• Traditional and advanced ceramics synthesis and processing
• Additive manufacturing
• Microstructure development and advanced characterization methods
• Quasi-static and dynamic mechanical behavior
• Underlying mechanisms for ballistic/mechanical behavior and microstructural evolution
• Constitutive model development
• Process model development
• Bonding/joining

Organizers

• Jerry LaSalvia, CCDC Army Research Laboratory, USA, jerry.c.lasalvia.civ@mail.mil
• Jeffrey Swab, CCDC Army Research Laboratory, USA, jeffrey.j.swab.civ@mail.mil
• Michael Bakas, Army Research Office, USA
• Kristopher Behler, CCDC Army Research Laboratory, USA
• Anthony DiGiovanni, CCDC Army Research Laboratory, USA
• Richard Haber, Rutgers University, USA
• Nicholas Ku, CCDC Army Research Laboratory, USA
• Patrik Lundberg, Swedish Defence Research Agency, Sweden
• Neil Middleton, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, UK
• Ghatu Subhash, University of Florida, USA
• Andrew Wereszczak, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA