The objective of this SBIR program is to develop a methodology for designing shape memory alloy (SMA) reinforced aluminum foam composite armor for the army applications in lightweight ballistic protection. Achieving this armor will improve the ballistic properties with the use of emerging smart materials, reduce the vulnerability of the vehicle and crew for ballistic impact and will result in a reduced structure weight compared to the existing ceramic composite armor materials. There are three key areas of investigation: (1)Identifying the most promising discontinuous SMA fiber, the SiC particulate reinforcements and aluminum alloys, (2)Investigation of the feasibility of fabrication of the proposed SMA/SiC reinforced aluminum foam composites and investigation the various processing techniques to find a low cost manufacturing process for incorporating the SMA into the aluminum foam, and (3) Evaluation of mechanical properties and relationship between material composition/processing condition and resulting characteristics. Demonstrate the feasibility to produce the proposed composite having better mechanical properties including impact toughness.
Benefits:Successful development of the energy absorbing material (EAM) with foam aluminum and SMA fibers will be a unique material system with significant contribution of both matrix and fiber in improving toughness and ballistic response. This lightweight material system will have the potential to replace ceramic armor and can find applications in Army vehicles for blast or other dynamic loading. Structural applications of these materials in other DoD vehicles as well as commercial vehicles for crashworthiness offer great potential. The material system to be investigated with short SMA and Al foamwill be evaluated for the first time. This will be a unique technology to be developed with Army SBIR funding. The technical challenges will be many, but the payoff is anticipated to be great.
Keywords:Short fiber, SMA, foam aluminum, energy absorbing material (EAM), toughness, ballistic response, failure mechanism
