THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ARMOR STEEL AND ITS BALLISTIC RESISTANCE (overview)

Abstract

The relevance of the work. Today the industry is actively developing in the field of manufacturing means for protection of all types of armored vehicles against fire damage by small arms and artillery weapons. At present, ensuring high dynamic resistance of armor against modern weapons without increasing its thickness and, accordingly, the mass of the structure as a whole is achieved due to the use of various non-metallic materials (armor ceramics, high-strength fabrics, etc.) as part of compositions with traditional steel armor. The development and design of workable materials and structures of armor protection is a complex scientific and technical problem. To ensure high stability and survivability of armor, it is necessary to establish a relationship between the mechanical properties of armor steel and its ballistic characteristics. Purpose. Based on the analysis of literary sources, determine the relationship between the mechanical properties of steel armor and its ballistic characteristics. Methodology. The method of scientific and technical literature analysis regarding the requirements for armored obstacles is applied. The results. Analytical investigations of the relationship between the main mechanical properties of steel armor and its ballistic characteristics are conducted in the work, which will allow predicting the optimal combination of mechanical properties’ values that will ensure high ballistic resistance. Increasing the hardness of armor steel usually reduces the impact toughness of steels. It is noted that the ballistic characteristics of structural and armor steels are correlated with the tensile strength limit. The existence of a correlation between the strength properties of materials and their resistance to crack propagation under high-speed (explosive) loading is shown. For a number of materials, there is a close relationship between predicted and measured ballistic characteristics at high deformations associated with ballistic impact, when compressive flow stress is used as a measure of material strength. Increasing impact toughness, especially in high and ultra-high hardness classes, is an important task in the development of armor steel. Hardness limits are therefore set for specific grades of steel armor to control impact toughness during production and reduce the risk of fracture or other brittle damage for specific steel compositions and applications.