Composite metal foams (CMFs) are capable of transforming an armor-piercing bullet into dust on impact, according to a video recently posted to the internet.
Considering the fact that these foams can also be lighter than metal plating, the material has obvious implications for creating new kinds of body and vehicle armor, according to researchers from North Carolina State University who developed the foam.
The video features a composite armor crafted from composite metal foams stopping a 7.62 x 63 millimeter M2 armor piercing projectile fired with conventional evaluation procedures set up by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).
“We could stop the bullet at a total thickness of less than an inch, while the indentation on the back was less than 8 millimeters,” said Afsaneh Rabiei, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State who has spent years working with CMFs. “To put that in context, the NIJ standard allows up to 44 millimeters indentation in the back of an armor.”
Which industries can use this material?
There are numerous areas that could benefit from an extremely light and strong armor material. For instance, applications from space exploration to shipping nuclear waste call for a material to not just be light and strong, but also effective at resisting extremely high temperatures and stopping radiation.
In 2015, with support from the Department of Energy, Rabiei revealed CMFs work well at shielding X-rays, gamma rays and neutron radiation. A few months ago, Rabiei published a study demonstrating these metallic foams withstand fire as well as heat twice as effective as the metals they are made from.
Now that these CMFs are getting to be well understood, there might be an even bigger selection of technologies that utilize this light, tough material.
Last year, researchers at the University of Texas debuted body armor made from a different kind of bullet-stopping material made from a nanofiber-based structure tougher than Kevlar. The material can also be stretched to seven times its original length.
To create the novel material, the team twisted nanofibers into coils and yarns, which generated bonds 10 times stronger than that of a hydrogen bond.
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Image credit: North Carolina State University
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