Investigation of ballistic behavior of aluminum foam

Abstract

In this paper, preliminary results of the use of closed-cell aluminum foams with different densities, an innovative material, in ceramic-faced armor systems are presented. Within the scope of this study, aluminum foams of different densities were sandwiched with a well-pressed UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) composite plate and used as a backing plate in the ceramic-faced armor system, and the effect of density of closed-cell aluminum foams was investigated. In the armor design in this study; Polyurea was used as the encapsulation polymer, alumina with high compressive strength and hardness to deform ammunition, UHWMPE to absorb energy and closed-cell aluminum foam to absorb energy were used. Within the scope of this paper; ballistic tests were performed on armor samples prepared with three different densities (0.30 g/cm3, 0.38 g/cm3 and 0.50 g/cm3) of aluminum foam against 7.62 mm x 63 M2 AP ammunition defined at Level 4 in NIJ 0108.01 standard and the test results were presented. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.