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Old 01-06-2009, 10:50 AM   #11
SuedodeuS
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Default Re: New ballistic body armor

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward
Yes I know the article talked about vehicle armour. My question was whether the same combination would make a useful body armour. Perhaps using perforated bainite inserts instead of ceramic ones.
Since the article talks about deflection, I suspect that perforated bainite works best as a sort of "cage" - the first line of defense, which deflects the round and causes the blunt side to strike the armor proper. Since the round (or at least its KE) would already be passing through the vest in the case of an insert, I don't think it would be deflected enough by the perforations to make much of a difference.

As a covering for kevlar, as you mentioned in your first post, it might work, but I don't think it would work very well as an insert. As a full covering it would likely end up being heavier than an insert - maybe too heavy to justify its use. Of course, if it's only a covering at the areas where inserts normally are, it could end up being a little lighter. It would make for interesting looking armor as well.
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Old 01-06-2009, 11:17 AM   #12
lwcamp
 
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: The plutonium rich regions of Washington State
Default Re: New ballistic body armor

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanHoward
Wearing a steel plate that has been perforated with holes seems to make any ballistic armour worn underneath more effective since it only has to resist fragments and not a solid bullet.
It is hardly definitive research, but I have noticed something similar when shooting at various types of "armored materials" with firearms. In particular, a couple mm of steel turned any 40 mm S&W bullet into an effective hollow point. In retrospect, this is obvious, since copper and lead are softer than steel, so impacting a steel surface would split the copper and expose and flatten the lead. Both jacketed and hollow point bullets penetrated approximately the same number of layers of cotton cloth after striking a metal plate, and the recovered bullets had much the same appearance.

In GURPS terms, I suppose this would mean that either (A) hollow point bullets have full effect against metal armor without an armor multiplier or (B) normal bullets get a 0.5 armor divisor after striking metal. Furthermore, anyone wearing metal armor would suffer the increased tissue damage of a normal bullet as if it were a hollow point.

This effect might only be against low velocity bullets like those from pistols or shotgun slugs. A .30-06 bullet just left a nice clean hole in the metal and all layers of cloth.

Luke
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Old 01-06-2009, 11:37 AM   #13
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: New ballistic body armor

Quote:
Originally Posted by lwcamp
This effect might only be against low velocity bullets like those from pistols or shotgun slugs. A .30-06 bullet just left a nice clean hole in the metal and all layers of cloth.
Be worth putting a target a couple of feet downrange from the metal plate. It's quite possible that the bullet simply had enough power to punch through the cloth even after being turned into a hollowpoint, or even being converted into several fragments (I suspect a .30-06 hollowpoint would also go right through all layers of cloth).

Of course, the other thing a barrier like this would do is reduce accuracy by a lot; max attack roll probably something like 9 + range modifier from barrier to target + size modifier of target.

Last edited by Anthony; 01-06-2009 at 11:44 AM.
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