Ceramic Tiles

Chobham armour was the name informally given to a composite armour developed in the 1960s at the British tank research centre on Chobham Common. The name has since become the common generic term for ceramic vehicle armour. more...

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Although the construction details of the Chobham Common armour remain a secret, it has been described as being composed of ceramic tiles encased within a metal matrix and bonded to a backing plate and several elastic layers. Due to the extreme hardness of the ceramics used, they offer superior resistance against shaped charges such as high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds and they shatter kinetic energy penetrators.

Structure

Ceramic tiles have a "multiple hit capability" problem in that they are unable to sustain successive impacts without quickly losing much of their protective value. To minimise the effects of this the tiles are made as small as possible, but the matrix elements have a minimal practical thickness of about an inch / 25 mm. and the ratio of coverage provided by tiles would become unfavourable, placing a practical limit at a diameter of about ten centimetres. The small hexagonal or square ceramic tiles are encased within the matrix either by isostatically pressing them into the heated matrix, or by glueing them with an epoxy resin. Since the early nineties it is known that bringing the tiles under constant compression by their matrix greatly improves their resistance to kinetic penetrators, which is difficult to achieve when using glues.

The matrix has to be backed by a plate, both to reinforce the ceramic tiles from behind and to prevent deformation of the metal matrix by a kinetic impact. Typically the backing plate has half of the mass of the composite matrix. The assemblage is again attached to elastic layers. These absorb impacts somewhat, but their main function is to prolong the service life of the composite matrix by protecting it against vibrations. Several assemblages can be stacked, depending on the available space; this way the armour can be made of a modular nature, adaptable to the tactical situation. The thickness of a typical assemblage is today about five to six centimetres. Earlier assemblages, so-called DOP (Depth Of Penetration) -matrices, were thicker. The relative interface defeat component of the protective value of a ceramic is much larger than for steel armour. Using a number of thinner matrices again enlarges that component for the entire armour package, an effect analogous to the use of alternate layers of high hardness and softer steel, which is typical for the glacis of modern Soviet tanks.

Ceramic tiles draw little or no advantage from sloped armour as they lack sufficient toughness to significantly deflect heavy penetrators. Indeed, because a single glancing shot could crack many tiles, the placement of the matrix is chosen so as to optimise the chance of a perpendicular hit, a reversal of the previous desired design feature for conventional armour. Ceramic armour normally even offers better protection for a given areal density when placed perpendicularly than when placed obliquely, because the cracking propagates along the surface normal of the plate. Instead of rounded forms, the turrets of tanks using Chobham armour typically have a slab-sided appearance.

Read more at Wikipedia.org