NDT characterisation of boron carbide for ballistic applications

摘要

Boron Carbide (B4C) is widely used to provide ballistic protection in many challengingrnservice environments. This work was undertaken to determine a suitable process forrnNon Destructive Testing (NDT) characterization of Boron Carbide. The project involvesrnthe introduction of deliberate flaws within the Boron Carbide tiles duringrnmanufacturing. An extensive experimental NDT program has been undertaken torndetermine the best method to detect defects into the ceramic tiles as well as to determinerndensity variations that can be used for quality monitoring purposes. Ultrasonicrncharacterization of the material was found to be able to detect both density variation andrndefects within the material. The defect resolution of the technique was found to berndependent upon the focus depth of the ultrasonic beam. The data obtained from thernultrasonic characterization was compared with other NDT techniques such asrnradiographic testing. This paper presents some of the data obtained during the NDTrntesting to demonstrate the capabilities and limitations of each of the techniques. Arnnumber of the supplied tiles were subjected to testing with all the two presentedrntechniques as means of comparison of the different NDT techniques.