Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:24:13.380Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Deformation and Comminution of Shock Loaded α-Al2O3 in the Mescall Zone of Ceramic Armor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

J. T. Mcginn
Affiliation:
David Sarnoff Research Center, CN 5300, Princeton, NJ 08540
R. W. Klopp
Affiliation:
SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park,CA 94025
D. A. Shockey
Affiliation:
SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park,CA 94025
Get access

Abstract

Incursion of high density penetrators into ceramic armor is preceded by the formation of a finely comminuted rubble bed at the penetrator tip, the Mescall zone. The deformation and failure processes that result in the Mescall zone are critical to understanding penetration resistance and to modeling penetration behavior. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to examine shock loaded material in the vicinity of an explosive detonation in α-Al2O3 and to infer the phenomenology of plasticity and fracture occurring at the tip of an advancing penetrator in ceramic armor. Comminution proceeds by intergranular fracture until the fragment size approaches the grain size. Further fragmentation proceeds by transgranular cracks, which nucleate at preexisting microvoids and at intersections of basal twins and primary and secondary slip bands.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Shockey, D. A., Marchand, A. H., Skaggs, S. R., Cort, G. E., Burkett, M. W., and Parker, R., Int. J. Impact Engng., 9, 263275 (1990).Google Scholar
2. Espinosa, H. D., Raiser, G., Clifton, R. J., and Ortiz, M., J. Hard Materials, 3, (3–4), 285313 (1992).Google Scholar
3. Howitt, D. G. and Kelsey, P. V., Deutsche Gesselschaft fur Metallkunde, 1, 249256 (1988).Google Scholar
4. Cagnoux, J., Shock Compression of Condensed Matter - 1989, Schmidt, S. C., Johnson, J. N., Davison, L. W., Eds. (Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., 1990), pp. 445448.Google Scholar
5. Louro, L. H. L. and Meyers, M. A., Shock Compression of Condensed Matter, 1989, Schmidt, S. C., Johnson, J. N., Davison, L. W., Eds. (Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., 1990), pp. 465468.Google Scholar
6. Klopp, R. W., Shockey, D. A., Seaman, L., Curran, D. R., McGinn, J. T., de Resseguier, T., AMD-Vol. 197, Mechanical Testing of Ceramics and Ceramic Composites (ASME 1994), pp. 4160.Google Scholar
7. Louro, L. H. L. and Meyers, M. A., J. Mater. Sci., 24, 2516, (1989).Google Scholar
8. Wang, Y. and Mikkola, D. E., in Shock Wave and High-Strain-Rate Phenomena in Materials, Meyers, M. A., Murr, L. E., and Staudhammer, K. P., Eds. (Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1992) pp. 10311040.Google Scholar