CIRCUITRY , STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF HETEROGENEOUS MATERIALS

Currently, heterogeneous materials based on titanium and aluminum alloys are widely used as promising armor materials. When a ballistic object is exposed to the armor material, brittle cracks that occur at the contact point spread in such a way that composite material is in state of decay both deep into and along the interlayer boundaries of the joint, while there is a violation of the composite structure and loss of the mechanical strength of the armor element. In this regard, the task of developing new reinforcement schemes for composite armor is urgent. One of the most promising technologies in the field of creating and developing new composite non-metallic armor materials is explosion bonding. The authors of the work proposed a new scheme for reinforcing a heterogeneous metal material by means of explosion bonding, which uses internal perforated reinforcing layers that serve as elements preventing the development of brittle fracture at the point of ballistic contact. To increase the efficiency of the destruction of a ballistic object in the composite structure, the authors proposed the formation of highly solid intermetallic compounds at the boundary between the metal of the base of a viscous metal matrix and the reinforcing element by subsequent heat treatment of the material. The conducted micro-X-ray spectral analysis of intermetallic compounds showed their correspondence to the chemical compound α-titanium (TiAl3). Comparison of the obtained level of physical and mechanical properties of the developed heterogeneous armored material with analogues suggests that the expected level of the composite protection class against small arms is in the range from Br4 to Br5 according to GOST R 50963-96 with an armor thickness of 40 to 60 mm, which makes it possible to reduce the weight of armored vehicles significantly and, as a result, increase its tactical and technical characteristics.