An experimental study on ballistic performance of boron carbide tiles

Boron carbide is an attractive candidate for use as armour material because of its lower density combined with high hardness. The ballistic performance of boron carbide tiles were evaluated using standard Depth of Penetration (DOP) test method against hard steel 7.62 mm armour piercing (AP) projectiles. The effect of variation in thickness of tile and the projectile velocity on the ballistic efficiency of the material was studied. It has been found that the differential efficiency factor (DEF) increases with increase in projectile velocity from 600 to 820 m/s. And an insignificant or marginal increase in efficiency was observed for increase in tile thickness from 5.2 mm up to 7.3 mm. The effect of the type of radial confinement on the residual DOP was also studied. It was found that the steel radial confinement produces lower residual DOP values compared to aluminium alloy and with no radial confinement. Results along with photographs have been presented.