LEAD-FREE, TEXTURED & EPITAXIAL PIEZOELECTRICS / FERROELECTRICS &

OTHER ELECTROCERAMICS
LIGHTWEIGHT BULLETPROOF VESTS: HOT-PRESSED BORON CARBIDE FOR
BALLISTIC PURPOSES
1 2 3 4

1,2,3

4
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Ni
.

Abstract
The military, police and government special forces commonly use lightweight bulletproof vests. From
2018 to 2021, US Army will replace a new modular scalable vest particularly while deployed, instead
of the ones used today. Fully loaded with its ballistic plates, the weight of the vest is about 11 kg.
Marine Corps is also in a race with US Army to make the load lighter for the personnel. Carbide
ceramics such as boron carbide (B4C), silicon carbide (SiC), tungsten carbide (WC) are common
armour ceramics. High hardness, modulus of elasticity and relative density are the necessary
characteristics for the ballistic efficiency. Fully dense B4C can only be produced by Hot-pressing
technique, by using fine starting powders and the addition of sintering additives. Sintering
4C. Ballistic tests indicate that the
areal density of B4C ceramics is the lowest among other armour ceramics. In addition to low density
and excellent mechanical properties, B4C provides weight reduction of 20% in comparison to SiC.
However, the cost of B4C tile is four times higher than SiC. As a result, the production parameters
have got a deep effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties of B4C based bulletproof vests.
In order to improve the ballistic efficiencies of B4C armour ceramics, it is more than necessary to fully
understand the relationship between the microstructure and the mechanical properties. In the present
study, recent hot-pressing studies related to B4C armour ceramics and corresponding characterization
results will be introduced.
Key words: Hot pressing, boron carbide, ballistic, armor.

1.INTRODUCTION

NIJ Standard-0101.06 indicates that the armors can withstand different levels of energy between Type
I and Type IV against 22 long rifle and 38 ACP armor piercing rifle rounds 1 .

In general, Level IV ballistic armors are used against large and high velocity bullets as in the military.
These armors are made up of some types of ceramic and can stop rounds fired by rifles and
submachine guns 2 .

When a bullet hits the body, only a small area is exposed to high energy in a very fast manner. Bullet
proof vests are used to absorb this high energy only the small area and to disperse it over a larger area
of the body during a longer time. Even still causing injury, the body is damaged much less instead of
bullets penetrating the internal organs. That is the reason why bullet proof vests are utilized 3 .

In terms of hardness, boron carbide (B4C) is after diamond and cubic boron nitride and is known to be
one of the hardest materials. However, sintering aids must be added into boron carbide to reach full
density during sintering due to the low sinterability. Typical characteristics of boron carbide are low
density, high compressive strength and elastic modulus, low thermal conductivity and most important
of all, extreme hardness 4 .

Table 1 shows some of the main properties of boron carbide. As the main applications, boron carbide
is used as abrasives, in polishing and lapping, in nozzles, for slurry pumping, grit blasting, and water
jet cutters due to the wear and abrasion resistance as well as an absorbent material for neutron
radiation purposes in nuclear power plants. Body armor, application combines hardness, compressive
strength, high elastic modulus and low specific density properties 4 .

Table 1 Physical and mechanical properties of hot-pressed boron carbide 4

Property Value
range
Density (g cm-3) 2.45-2.52
Apparent porosity (%) <3
Compressive strength 1400-3400
(MPa)
Hardness, Knoop (kg. mm- 2800-3500
2
)
Hardness, Vickers (kg. mm- 3200
2
)
Recently, the usage of Shear strength (MPa) 210-380 boron carbide based
armors has become more Tensile modulus (GPa) 440-470 common particularly for
military personnel. These are used as plates or tiles
which are inserted into ballistic vests, thus they provide 50% reduction in weight. Furthermore, they
are able to indicate a protection greater than previous products, or equal protection at the worst case.
These armors can be produced in order to fit to the body in a better way, which then increases the
performance and life saving chance 5 .

Figure 1 a. Hot zone of a hot press 6 , b. Image of a hot press furnace 7 .

The lightweight bulletproof vests are often used by the military, police and government special forces.
Till 2021, US Army will have changed the previous vests with their newly developed ones. Fully
loaded with its ballistic plates, this new vests will be quite lightweight. Marine Corps are also working
on to make the load lighter for the personnel 8 .
 Figure 2 a. and b. Sintering procedure examples for hot-pressing 9 .

Hot-pressing is the only method to produce the most dense B4C with the usage of fine starting powders
and also sintering additives as shown in Fig.1. Very high sintering temperatures are also required.
Sintering temperatures and times in some hot-pressing examples are shown in Fig.2. According to the
ballistic performance tests, boron carbide gives the best result in comparison to other armour ceramics.
Despite the weight reduction provided by B4C in comparison to SiC, the cost is four times higher for
boron carbide than SiC. The hot-pressing parameters affect the mechanical properties of bulletproof
vests made of B4C greatly 4 .

The relationship between the microstructure and the mechanical properties is quite important for the
ballistic efficiencies of B4C armour ceramics. In the present study, recent hot-pressing studies related
to B4C armour ceramics and corresponding characterization results will be introduced.

2.HOT PRESSING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BORON CARBIDE

One of the very recent studies on hot pressed boron carbide, the microstructure of samples sintered by
hot pressing (HP) has been observed to be very homogeneous and has a relative density of about 91%.
In this study, using another method, Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), a high relative density over 94%
has been determined. Zhang et al. tested the mechanical properties after SPS sintering and have found
that these are superior to those sintered by HP due to the heterogeneous microstructures 10 .

After hot pressing under a pressure of Pa at a low temperature of , high hardness,

Before hot pressing, high-energy ball milling has been used to prepare ultrafine particle sizes
in the range of a few nanometres and a few hundred nanometres. No sintering aid has been used during
the sintering process. Transgranular and intergranular fracture modes have been observed together as a
result of the co-existance of small and large grains, which in turn has increased the fracture toughness
to . m1/2. The relative density, Vickers hardness and flexure strength values have been
measured to be and 11 .

Alexander et al. used graphene nano-platelets (GNP) as reinforcement for B4C based composites,
which has improved the density of the composite acting as the sintering aid.
increased hardness and elastic modulus. The indentation and single edge notch bend (SENB) methods
1/2 1/2
with
of GNP 12 .

An application of the pressures in the range of 30-110 MPa indicated that the plastic deformation is
the predominant densification mechanism under high pressure. Since the grain growth is easy with
reduced pores, grain size has increased with increasing pressure, also with increasing soaking time.
Inversely, Vickers hardness and fracture toughness have increased with grain refinement. By applying
a pressure of 100 MPa during hot pressing, relative density, grain size, Vickers hardness and fracture
toughness values have been measured to be 99.73%, 1.96 GPa and 3.94 MPa m1/2,
respectively 13 .
A ceramic particulate composite consisting of Al2O3 with 15 vol% SiC and 15 vol% B4C has been
produced with full density. This composite has showed a strength, Vickers hardness and
fracture toughness of 880 MPa, 21 GPa and 4.5 MPa m , respectively. Resulting from the thermal
expansion mismatch of Al2O3 matrix and SiC/B4C reinforcement, some microcracks have formed at
the grain boundaries 14 .

Recently, Kovalcikova and co-workers have produced B4C based composites using 4-10 wt% of
graphene platelets as sintering aids. Hot pressing has been carried out at , resulting in a
bending strength of 398 MPa and a fracture toughness of 5.89 MPa. m1/2. The crack deflection, crack
branching and crack bridging have been proposed as the main toughening mechanisms as the reason
for high fracture toughness obtained 15 .

Kumar et al. used 0.001 Pa vacuum atmosphere to produce hot pressed boron carbides samples at a
sintering temperature of 1700- -50 MPa. An addition of MoSi2
powder of 10 and 30 wt% has resulted in MoSi 2 and B4C reaction to form SiC, MoB2 and Mo2B5.
Highly dense B4C and 30 wt% MoSi2 samples have indicated that the hardness, elastic modulus and
fracture toughness values to be 35.1 GPa, 555 GPa and 4.8 MPa m1/2, respectively 16 .

3.RECENT BALLISTIC PERFORMANCE TESTS

A recent study has carried out the simulation of a simplified ballistic impact in order to evaluate the
ballistic performance of B4C tiles with an addition of molybdenum disilicide powder in the range of 10
and 30 wt%. Hard steel armor piercing (AP) projectile of 12.7mm caliber has been used in the
standard depth of penetration (DOP) test where the projectile velocities have been taken as 700-
825m/s 17 .

B4C has also been used as the reinforcement in Al 6061-based metal matrix composites in the range of
5- Transgranular fracture in B4C reinforcement particles has been detected in these composites
after mechanical testing. Hardness, transverse rupture strength and tensile strength have increased with
B4C reinforcement whereas the impact toughness has decreased. Following the mechanical tests, a
the ballistic
resistance has been evaluated by analyzing the hole surface in the armor composite. As a result, a petal
failure mechanism has been detected with a ductile behaviour.
standard depth of penetration (DOP) has been low since the samples have absorbed the impact energy
of the bullet 18 .

Savio and co-workers very recently, have examined the f

which has impacted the boron carbide tiles. This has been carried out by the post-ballistic study of
projectiles. These researchers have concluded that the failure of the projectile has originated from two
locations; initially, the target interaction front of the projectile and secondly, a location near the tail
end of the projectile. These two failures have resulted from the harsh deformation at the interaction
front in the first case; and from the stress wave generated micro-cracks in the latter. The tile thickness
and projectile velocity (600- for the failure mechanism 19 .

A novel composite ballistic armor system developed by Garcia-Avila and co-workers has been
produced in multi-layer structure; with a strike face of boron carbide, a kinetic energy absorber
interlayer made up of metal foam and the backplates made of A ,
which can be seen in Fig.3. This newly developed system has had a total armor thickness of about
25 mm. Applying U.S. National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standard 0101.06, a ballistic test has been
carried out against 7.62 51 mm M80 and 7.62 63 mm M2 armor piercing projectiles. It has been
showed that 60-70% of the total kinetic energy of the projectiles has been absorbed by the composite
metal foams which have acted as the interlayer. During the ballistic test, this armor system has stopped
the projectiles. Standard depth of penetration (DOP) and backplate deformation have been low 20 .
Another armor system has been developed to consist of two layers; boron carbide layer and Kevlar 49
fiber composite layer. An analysis of a projectile penetration in composite armor has been made by
the simulation of penetration process. The type of projectile impacts to armor has been simulated and
it has been showed that with oblique impact type, the ballistic limit velocity of armor has increased.
Normal and oblique impacts of projectile have been compared for the particular armor system 21 .

Figure 3 a. Bulletproof Kevlar 49 Aramid fiber fabric 22 , b. Boron carbide armor plates 23 .

Orphal has recently used flash X-rays to examine the penetration into the boron carbide. Also, by
using the penetrator-target interaction, the speed of penetration into the target and consumption rate of
penetrator were determined 24 .

Hogan has explored the impact fragmentation of boron carbide and has found that different
fragmentation mechanisms take place in the targets. Using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), the
cracks parallel and perpendicular to the impact direction have been detected. He has concluded that by
controlling the fragment size and shape of the boron carbide targets, next-generation advanced
ceramics for personal protection can be designed
25 .

4.CONCLUSION

1. Highly dense B4C compacts had a relative density of 99.5-99.7%.

2. Vickers hardness, flexure strength and elastic modulus of the samples were 35-
and 555 GPa, respectively. Fracture toughness values were 4.4-4.8 Mpa. m1/2 .
3. The simulations of penetration process were done. From the views of the penetrator-target
interaction, the relevant data were determined. Experimetal data and simulation results were
compared.
4. Due to impact failure of boron carbide targets, different fragmentation mechanisms were
observed.
5. It was concluded that by controlling the fragment size and shape in boron carbide targets, the
design of next-generation advanced ceramics for personal protection can be made possible.

REFERENCES

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3 https://www.emsworld.com/article/12244254/body-armor-injuries-expect-the-unexpected

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