Ballistic Performance of a Composite Metal Foam-ceramic Armor System

Composite Metal Foam is a low-weight, high-strength porous material capable of absorbing great amounts of energy under loading. In this report, Composite Metal Foam panels are manufactured using powder metallurgy technique and 2 mm steel hollow spheres in a steel matrix and used in conjunction with a ceramic plate to fabricate a new light-weight composite armor system. This armor system is tested under ballistic loading using 7.62x51 mm M80 and 7.62x63 mm M2 AP projectiles at varying impact velocities for single and multi-impact scenarios. The material behavior, failure mechanism, and ballistic performance of the armor system are studied for optimization.