Performance Metrics for Composite Integral Armor

Future combat systems necessarily focus on lightweight, highly mobile and transportable armored vehicles. Lightweight composite integral armor systems are being developed to meet these needs. The goal of this paper is to centrally document the myriad design requirements for composite integral armors that serve multifunctional roles including ballistic, structural, shock, electromagnetic, and fire protection. Structural and ballistic performance requirements as well as manufacturing and life-cycle performance issues of integral armor are presented. Specific areas addressed include high-strain-rate testing and modeling, ballistic testing and modeling, low-cycle fatigue, damage tolerance, repair, reduced-step processing, through-thickness reinforcement, energy dissipation and rate-dependent failure mechanisms, and non-linear mechanics.