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Recommendations for Determining the Hardness of Armor Ceramics
Author(s) -
Swab Jeffrey J.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
international journal of applied ceramic technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.4
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1744-7402
pISSN - 1546-542X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7402.2004.tb00173.x
Subject(s) - knoop hardness test , indentation , materials science , ceramic , armour , composite material , vickers hardness test , indentation hardness , hardness , microstructure , layer (electronics)
It is empirically known that an armor ceramic should be as hard or harder than the projectile it intends to defeat. Quasi‐static indentation testing is one of the most widely utilized techniques for determining the hardness of armor ceramics. Hardness measurements can also be used to generate other property values that may be relevant to ballistic performance (fracture toughness, elastic properties, and even the yield strength). While the indentation methodologies are simple and straight forward, the resultant hardness values for ceramic materials can be influenced by the indenter geometry, indentation load, loading rate, specimen surface finish, and microstructure. This presentation will summarize the results of a study to determine the hardness of a variety of armor‐grade ceramics with different indenter geometries (Vickers and Knoop) over a range of indentation loads (0.98‐98 N) and discuss the implications for armor ceramics. The resulting data strongly indicate that the best means of determining the hardness of armor ceramics is the use of 19.6‐N Knoop indentations.