Development of a New Armor Steel and its Ballistic Performance

In this study, a boron added armor steel was developed according to standard rolled homogenous armor steel, MIL-A-12560, and metallographic-fractographic examinations were carried out to understand its deformation characteristics and perforation mode after interaction with a 7.62 nun armor piercing projectile. The microstructure of the developed steel was characterized by light and scanning electron microscope to evaluate its matrix after application of several heat treatments consisting of austenization, quenching and tempering. The mechanical properties of the developed steel were determined by tensile test at room temperature and notched impact test at -40 degrees C. The ballistic performance of developed steel was determined by its V50 ballistic protection limit according to MIL-STD-662F standard and it was found to be higher than that of MIL-A-12560 steel. After perforation deformation induced adiabatic shear bands, that have an important role on the crack nucleation, were observed close to the penetration in the etched steel and perforation occurred by typical ductile hole enlargement with certain radial flows.