Modeling and Experimental Results for Ceramic Insensitive Munitions Fragment Impact Barriers

The U.S. Army DEVCOM Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ is working to develop technologies to mitigate the violent reaction of various munitions when subjected to the NATO Insensitive Munitions Fragment Impact (FI) test. As per NATO AOP 4496, FI testing is conducted at 2530±90 m/s with a 14.3mm diameter, L/D~1, 160˚ conical nosed mild steel fragment. Depending on the munition item of interest, packaging barriers are often required in tandem with less sensitive energetics to fully mitigate this threat. Both the extremely strong initial input shock and the subsequent penetration mechanics must be addressed, requiring barrier designs that provide enhanced fragment breakup and velocity reduction. Packaging barriers must ideally be lightweight, inexpensive, and able to withstand applicable environmental and rough handling conditions. As a result advanced lightweight armor materials have been of recent interest. Ceramics in particular have pressure dependent strength and can provide significantly enhanced protection. Hydrocode modeling was performed to identify ceramic barriers which provided improved performance compared to simple metallic designs. These configurations were tested at the GD-OTS Rock Hill test facility, and good agreement with modeling predictions was observed.