Improvement of Penetrator Performance by Increasing/Engineering Case Mechanical Properties

"The proposal submitted herein is based on prior research into effects of various groups of alloying elements on structure and properties of alpha- and gamma-iron based steels.Developed theory and previously obtained test results indicate that a complex of excellent mechanical characteristics (strength, ductility and fracture toughness) can be achieved in low alloy steels without the need for expensive purification processes(reduction in the level of S, P and other undesirable elements) and / or high levels of Co, Ni, Mo. These properties can be obtained through proper selection of relatively inexpensive alloying elements based, among other factors, on the element's atomicstructure, their solubility in iron and their inter-crystalline and inter-phase adsorption activity.The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate that our alloying methodology allows production of relatively inexpensive steel alloys with excellent combination of mechanical properties - tensile strength, ductility, impact strength and fracturetoughness, with yield strength and impact strength values within the target ranges of 235-325 ksi and 30-34 Ft-lbs respectively.It is expected that processing characteristics of these alloys will be comparable to common medium-carbon steel grades. Having also low cost, proposed alloys could potentially find wide military and commercial applications. Having low cost and excellent combination of mechanical and processing charact