Composite Armor Groove Compression Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional armor systems face challenges with weight, cost, and integration issues due to the high burden of ceramic materials, which are often heavy and expensive, and struggle to achieve high mass efficiency in defeating projectiles effectively.
Innovation Solution
An armor structure with an integral compression-inducing backing plate and frontal member, featuring grooves and channels that manage tensile stress to delay fracture and absorb projectile energy, potentially eliminating the need for an encapsulating frame and optimizing material usage for improved mass efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If lighter ceramic materials (aluminum nitride, silicon carbide, boron carbide) are used to reduce weight, then the weight of the armor is reduced, but the cost increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies compressive preload to the ceramic armor plate, changing its stress state parameter from unstressed to pre-compressed. This parameter change allows the use of less expensive ceramic materials while maintaining performance, as the compressive preload prevents tensile cracking that would otherwise require more expensive materials to resist
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies compressive preload to the ceramic armor plate before the projectile impact occurs. This preliminary action of pre-compressing the ceramic prevents tensile cracking during impact, allowing the use of cost-effective ceramic materials that would otherwise be too vulnerable to tensile stresses
2Strength
If ceramic armor is encapsulated in a preloaded compressive frame to harden it, then the fracture toughness and hardness improve, but the device complexity and integration challenges increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the complex metal encapsulating frame from the armor system. Instead of using a frame to apply compressive preload, the invention uses a simpler direct compression mechanism that achieves the same hardening effect without the integration challenges of frame encapsulation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent inverts the conventional approach by applying compressive preload directly to the ceramic plate rather than using an external frame structure. This inversion simplifies the overall system by eliminating the frame while maintaining the beneficial compressive stress state in the ceramic
3Reliability
If more armor is added to increase protection, then the protective capability improves, but the weight increases and payload capacity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the stress state parameter of the ceramic armor by applying compressive preload, which significantly improves its ballistic performance. This parameter change allows thinner, lighter ceramic plates to achieve the same protective capability as much thicker conventional armor, thereby reducing overall system weight while maintaining reliability
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enhances the structural integrity and mass efficiency of the armor system, reducing weight and cost while effectively defeating projectiles, with optimized grooves and channels distributing compressive loads to counteract tensile stresses, thereby improving the overall performance and durability of the armor.
Implementation Method 1
impart a compressive load into the backside of the frontal member
Implementation Method 2
induce compressive stresses into the frontal member... offset the tensile stresses that may typically lead to fracture
Implementation Method 3
utilizes the kinetic energy of the projectile as part of the defeat mechanism
Implementation Method 4
press the outer surfaces of the grooves of the frontal member in engagement with the inner surfaces of the receiving channels
Implementation Method 5
the frontal member... to delay tensile fracture in, for example, a ceramic or glass component... to defeat an incident projectile
Implementation Method 6
The frontal member of the composite is typically present to fracture and erode impacting projectiles
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus, method and system to enhance the performance of composite armor by utilizing the energy of the threat projectile is disclosed. The frontal member includes, for example, a plurality of concentric proves on the face opposite of the surface that is impacted by a projectile. The grooves in the frontal member preferably may mate with a complimentary plurality of concentric grooves in a backing plate. During impact by a projectile, the force from the projectile presses the grooves of the frontal member into engagement with the grooves of the backing plate. The grooves are uniquely designed to cause the backing plate to impart a compressive load into the backside of the frontal member preventing it from prematurely fracturing in tension at the onset of the projectile penetration. In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the frontal member grooves, the angles of the each concentric groove are individually selected to cause the groove induced compressive loads to match the frontal member tensile loads from the penetrating projectile. The structural integrity of the frontal member is thus maintained until the projectile is defeated.