Investigation on the ballistic performance of a tempered dual phase steel

In defense applications, ballistic performance of engineering materials should be known well,because it has a great importance to utilize lightweight armors that provide both energysaving and increasing maneuverability. In this study, the ballistic performance of a tempereddual phase steel, which has four different martensite volume fractions, was investigatedagainst 7.62 mm Armor Piercing (AP) projectiles. In steels; low, medium and high martensitevolume fractions were obtained by intercritically quenching and full martensite structure wasobtained by quenching from ostenite region. After quenching, the specimens were prepared ineight different heat treatment conditions by tempering at 200 °C and 400 °C. In the first stepof the study, mechanical characteristics and microstructures of the specimens weredetermined. Hardness and tensile tests were applied to specimens in all heat treatmentconditions. In the second step, totally 120 ballistic tests were applied to specimens, whichhave five different areal density, by repeating three times for each specimen at the shootinggallery of Kırıkkale MKE Gunnery INC. After tests, ballistic performance of the specimenswas evaluated by investigating in both macro and micro scale. According to the results, it wasdetermined that while all the specimens which have highest areal density were successful andall the specimens which have lowest areal density were failed, the specimens quenched from900 °C and tempered at 200 °C were the most successful group.Key Words: Dual Phase Steel, Ballistic Applications, Tempering, Armor Materials,Adiabatic Shear Band.