The Resistance of SIFCON to High Velocity Impact

Tests have been carried out to assess the damage to SIFCON (slurry infiltrated fibre concrete) when impacted by a small high level velocity projectile (9.6 - 9.9g mass, 860m/s velocity). Preliminary tests were carried out on 300mm diameter SIFCON cylinders to investigate the effects of using different fibres and slurries and the thickness of SIFCON required to prevent perforation. This led to tests on 300mm diameter x 125mm thick SIFCON specimens. From these tests SIFCON was found to show much less front face spall damage than concrete, but projectiles penetrated further into SIFCON than into concrete. An alternative material was made by mixing a proportion of 10mm aggregate with the fibres before infiltrating with slurry. The aggregate improved the penetration resistance compared to ordinary SIFCON, while the size of spall craters was still much less than in conventional concrete. This material was slightly less expensive than SIFCON but further economies were made by placing a layer of fibres on the external faces and using aggregate, or aggregate with a very small amount of fibres mixed in, for the middle layer and infiltrating all three layers with slurry. The aggregate improved the penetration resistance of the material while the SIFCON layers exhibited little damage on impact and retained damaged aggregate inside the target. Tests were carried out on targets containing different thicknesses of fibre layer on front and back. Comparisons between all targets are discussed showing which materials are best for penetration resistance and which are best for reduction of crater damage.

• INTRODUCTION

• MAIN TEST SERIES

• DISCUSSION

• CONCLUSIONS

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• References