Scope and Method of Study. The goal of this study is to develop a body armor prototype which is lightweight, strong, and improves on the back face deflection of current armor. By incorporating ballistic grade ceramic tile, aerogel, and ballistic grade Kevlar a body armor plate was developed which stopped an NIJ Level III bullet with a minimal back face deflection. The armor plate developed has a larger areal density than the current body armor, but the back face deflection is an improvement. Prior to testing, a computer simulation, completed in ABAQUS, was created to understand what results might be expected after testing the armor plate. A new ballistic fiber, Dyneema®, was also introduced into the configuration of the armor plate. The purpose of this fiber was to replace the ceramic tile with the goal of reducing the weight of the body armor further. Since Dyneema® is currently known to stop an NIJ Level III bullet; it was incorporated into an armor plate along with crosslinked aerogels in order to reduce back face deflection.

Findings and Conclusions. The results given by ABAQUS gave a back-face deflection of 12 mm (0.47 in) and the actual back face deflection of the tested armor plate was 12.7 mm (0.5 in). The armor plate yielded a back face deflection 5.8% greater than the simulation result. After testing all armor plates, they underwent a CT scan, where images in three axes are saved in order to determine the deformation of the ceramic tile, crosslinked aerogel, Kevlar, and Dyneema® plates. In addition, the CT scans allow the deformation of the bullets to be seen. The CT scans also allow the deformation of the aerogel plates to be analyzed in order to optimize energy absorption for future armor plates incorporating crosslinked aerogels. The back face deflection for all tested armor plates could be measured from the CT scans as well as measured manually. All tested armor plates result in a 36.4% - 72.7% reduction in back face deflection as compared to the standard deflection of 44 mm (1.73 in).