Ballistic performance of sandwich tubes

Abstract

Stainless steel tubes were packed with aluminum foams of two different densities, 0.15g/cm3 and 0.41g/cm3. These tubes were penetrated by projectiles (pointed end) to determine their perforation energy. The perforation energy of these tubes was compared to the perforation energy of a coreless stainless steel tube. Having the aluminum foams increased the perforation energy of the tubes relative to the coreless one and the denser the aluminum foam, the greater the increase in perforation energy.

Similar experiments were conducted on sandwich panels with different thickness of aluminum foams. The thicker the foam, the greater was the increase in perforation energy. However the percentage increase in perforation energy per thickness diminished as the thickness was increased.