A Blast Resistant Armor Package Based on a High Strength Titanium Foam

The Army has a critical need for increased protection for combat personnel vehicles against blasts from land mines and IED’s. A solution to this problem is needed which addresses damage from both fragment penetration and blast pressure, while maintaining an acceptable thickness and weight addition to the underbelly of the vehicles. MER Corp. working with Prof. Anthony Evans of UCSB will develop a solution to this problem which is based on a sandwich structure of dense titanium layers with a new high strength Ti foam being developed by MER. A strike face layer of MER’s Ti/TiB2 composite cermet armor will be used which has been shown to have excellent fragment protection at one half the areal density of Ti-6-4 armor. Prof Evans will conduct a modeling study to define the optimum overall structure, which will build on his earlier studies of honeycomb structures. MER will optimize the foam parameters and provide data to be used for the modeling study.