RU2542813C1 - Volumetric combination armour - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: weapons and ammunition.

SUBSTANCE: volumetric combination armour includes a very hard layer of ceramic elements combined with a binding agent into a solid block, and a high-strength energy-intensive rear layer. Ceramic elements have slanted edges at an angle of 15-55° in relation to the armour plane; with that, non-extreme elements have chamfers directed inwards along two adjacent sides and chamfers directed outwards along two other sides. Extreme angular elements have only two chamfers, and two other sides have no chamfers. The elements located on the edge of the very hard layer, but which are not angular ones, have three sides with chamfers. Central elements of the very hard layer have a thickening that is by 1.2-1.5 times bigger if compared to the rest elements.

EFFECT: improving reliability and efficiency of armour protection.

14 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the field of development of means of protecting equipment from armor-piercing bullets. Lightweight combined armor contains a high-hardness layer of ceramic elements of a special shape, connected with glue or connected in a monolith, and a high-strength back layer capable of absorbing the residual energy of bullets, cores and fragments.

With the advent of highly effective striking weapons and increased requirements for armor protection, the resource of traditional metal armor materials was exhausted, which led to the creation of multilayer combined armor.

The ideology of combined protection is the combination of several layers of dissimilar materials with priority properties, including a front layer of extra hard materials and a high-strength, energy-intensive back layer.

As materials of the front layer, ceramics of the highest hardness category mastered in industrial production are used: corundum, silicon and boron carbides, as well as boron nitride. The task of ceramics is to violate the integrity (chipping, crushing, partial or complete destruction) of the hardened core due to stresses arising from the high-speed interaction of brittle, high-hard materials and significant absorption of their original energy.

The back retaining layer is designed to repay kinetic energy and block fragments resulting from impact interaction with ceramics. As the rear materials, metal armor and composite armored materials based on glued or extruded high-modulus aramid fibers based on ultra-molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), which have increased impact strength and ultimate deformation and have a minimum surface density (Spektra ^® ), are widely used.

A technical solution is known (RF patent No. 2469255 F41H 1/02, publ. 10.12.2012), where the composite armor for protection against shock and traumatic effects of damaging elements of a firearm consists of a matrix unit having in the front layer many open cells of a given shape and size in which ceramic racks are fixed. In this case, each cell is covered by a panel attached to the cell walls of the matrix block, while in the cells of the matrix block between the bottom of the cells and the ceramic posts are fixed plates of X-ray amorphous silica (SiO ₂ ) in the form of a compressed particle powder formed on the basis of ordered SiO ₂ microspheres.

However, this design has several disadvantages. It uses a “weak” in its armor characteristics material based on SiO ₂ , which leads to higher weight characteristics. The design is not spared from the "weak" zones in the gaps between the hexagons. Also, this design due to the complexity of manufacturing technology will have high cost characteristics.

The use of small-sized ceramics (approximately 50 * 50 * 10 mm) provides a high level of "survivability" due to the reduction of the affected area and partial local maintainability very important for practice.

A technical solution is known (RF patent No. 2393416 F41H 5/04, publ. 06/27/2010), where a multilayer armored plate designed to protect individual and vehicles contains a substrate, and ceramic plates connected to each other by a sealant are displaced in the layer relative to each other each other by half their overall size in order to avoid “quadruple” joints on the surface, which are the weakest point in the case of connecting square or rectangular plates. Nevertheless, this design has a significant drawback, since there are a large number of “double” and “triple” joints, 0.4 mm thick, which are a weak point when a bullet enters this zone and, even destroying ceramics, it loses a small amount of initial energy .

Also known patent of the Russian Federation No. 2378601 F41H 5/04, publ. 01/10/2010, where the armor plate for protection against shells contains a layer of three-dimensional elements of armor cast from a ceramic material with an intermediate tool in the form of a tooth on the side of the three-dimensional element of armor. A three-dimensional armor element may contain a tooth on each side.

This design has several disadvantages. The design is not spared from weak zones in the gaps between the hexagons. The elements located on the perimeter, the plates have a size of 1/2 or 1/6 of the hexagon. If bullets hit them, they will have lower ballistic characteristics than whole hexagons, which will lead to penetration of armor protection.

Of the known types of multilayer armor, a close analogue to the declared one is volume-composite armor (RF patent No. 2476809 F41H 1/02, publ. 02/27/2013) containing a high-hard front layer of close-packed ceramic cylinders with convex ends connected by a binder into a monolith and high-strength energy-intensive back layer, while the axis of the ceramic elements of the front layer are located at an angle of 60-85 ° relative to the plane of the armor.

However, this design has several disadvantages. The design has higher weight characteristics, is not spared from weak zones in the spaces between the cylinders. The substrate is not equally thick, and since bullet resistance is calculated from the minimum thickness, this leads to an increase in the weight of the substrate, and also because of the violation of the continuity of the surface fibrous layer, this zone will not significantly absorb the energy of high-energy bodies due to the obstacle to the longitudinal propagation of waves. In contact with the substrate with sharp edges, the ceramic, when a bullet hits, additionally cuts through the surface of the fibrous material, thereby reducing its protective properties. The substrate has sharp edges, which are stress concentrators and will lead to a significant decrease in its strength characteristics.

The task of reducing the weight characteristics of armor protection is achieved by the fact that volume-combined armor containing a high-hard layer of ceramic elements connected by a binder into a monolith and a high-strength, energy-intensive back layer. In this case, the ceramic elements are made with beveled edges at an angle of 15-55 ° relative to the plane of the armor. Moreover, the non-edge elements are made with bevels inward along two mating sides and with bevels outward on two other sides, the extreme corner elements have only two bevels, and the other two sides are made without bevels. Elements located along the edge of the high-hardness layer, but not angular, have three sides with bevels, the central elements of the high-hardness layer have a thickness 1.2–1.5 times larger than other elements.

The technical result of the invention is to increase the reliability, effectiveness of armor and reduce its weight characteristics. This design is relieved of the lack of a “weakened” butt zone and regardless of the place where bullets, shells, and fragments hit, their passage without significant energy loss is eliminated due to the absence of adhesive joints unprotected by ceramics (Figure 1).

Therefore, it is advisable to use equal-thickness and equally-sized (approximately 50 * 50 mm) ceramic part of the armor and the substrate, and to eliminate the "weak" joints of the joints of the ceramic plates by introducing bevels and protrusions on the ceramic plates (Figure 1). The use of ceramic plates from 20 * 20 mm to 100 * 100 mm in size is allowed.

The use of "small" ceramics provides a high level of survivability due to the reduction of the affected area and partial local maintainability, which is very important for practice. To improve maintainability, a set of plates up to 20 * 20 mm in size can be made. The use of ceramic plates with a size of less than 20 * 20 mm will lead to penetration of the armor plate, and the use of ceramic plates with a size of more than 100 * 100 mm will reduce the "survivability" with the same thickness of the plates.

The introduction of bevels on ceramic plates leads to the fact that, at optimally selected angles of 15-55 °, the maximum energy dissipation occurs in the ceramic plate, even in the case of a bullet hitting the junction, which leads to a lower speed of departure of ceramic fragments and a heat-strengthened core after overcoming a ceramic barrier , which allows the use of a substrate of smaller thickness and, accordingly, less weight in comparison with structures without bevels.

Since the need for armor plates is high, the number of armor elements necessary to meet the needs of the armed forces is substantial. For the manufacture of armored plates, 300 * 300 mm in size, 36 armored elements will be required (Figure 2). And it will take 10 different injection tools for slip casting. The armor plate will consist of one element (Figure 3), one element (Figure 4), one element (Figure 5), one element (Figure 6), four elements (Figure 7), four elements (Figure 8) ), four elements (Fig. 9), four elements (Fig. 10), twelve elements (Fig. 11) and four elements (Fig. 12).

The probability of bullets entering the central part of the body armor is maximum, therefore the thickness of the 4 central armor elements (Fig. 12) is 1.2-1.5 times greater than that of the other armor elements.

If the thickness of the four central armor elements is 1.2 times less than the thickness of the remaining elements, this does not lead to a significant increase in armor resistance. If the thickness of the four central armored elements is 1.5 times greater than the thickness of the remaining elements, then this leads to a significant increase in their weight and to "excessive" armor resistance.

If the bevel angle is greater than 55 °, then the probability of breaking the ceramic element increases, since the volume of the destroyed ceramic decreases, which leads to less energy dissipation in the ceramic element. If the bevel angle is less than 15 °, then this will lead to an increase in the size of the "central" elements and, accordingly, to reduce the manufacturability of their manufacture. The positive effect of increasing armor will be leveled. The fixing of ceramic plates to a substrate of ultra-high modulus polyethylene or to glued or pressed high-modulus aramid or Kevlar fibers can be carried out by gluing ceramic plates. The extremum of the absorbed energy in the ceramic plate is achieved at a bevel angle of 45 °.

The armored panel can be made both in a flat version (Fig.13), and with a rounded radius of 350-400 mm (Fig.14). The outside of the armor panel can be covered with technical fabric to reduce the spread of ceramic fragments when a bullet hits. Body armor can be made in 5, 6 and 6A protection class.

Claims (1)

Volumetric combined armor containing a high-hard layer of ceramic elements connected by a binder into a monolith, and a high-strength energy-intensive back layer, characterized in that the ceramic elements are made with beveled edges at an angle of 15-55 ° relative to the plane of the armor, and non-edge elements are made with with bevels inward on two mating sides and with bevels outward on two other sides, the extreme corner elements have only two bevels, and the other two sides are made without bevels, the elements located on the edge you okotverdogo layer, but not angular, have three sides with bevels, central elements of high hard layer have a thickening 1.2-1.5 times longer than the other elements.

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