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View Full Version : High school science project increases body armor strength more than 8000 times!


Larry
06-18-2007, 22:51
Science fair project tests body armor upgrade

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jun 4, 2007 13:02:34 EDT

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — A high-school student’s award-winning science fair project aims to better protect soldiers from battle injuries.

Melissa Carvell, a sophomore at Bartlesville’s Mid-High, won a second-place award in the materials and bioengineering category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in mid-May in Albuquerque, N.M.

She created an upgrade to the body armor worn by U.S. forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This is like winning a Nobel Prize,” Mid-High science teacher Colleen Bennett said of her student’s honor. “This is huge. There were five Nobel Laureates — former Nobel Prize winners in science and engineering — among the judges.”

The girl’s project reinforced the ceramic plates inside the body armor worn by U.S. forces with two layers of carbon fibers set at 90 degree angles to each other.

She tested her idea using an AK47 bullet dropped from different heights and varying weights to mimic the impact of a fired weapon shell. Her research showed the plate strength could be improved by more than 8,000 times what it has been.

“I wanted to do something to help people and I enjoy working with composites,” she said. “So, this was a good project for me.”

She was among 1,500 students from 47 countries competing for prizes in several categories, including biology, chemistry, computer science, Earth sciences and engineering.

The honor brought her a $1,500 cash prize, an $8,000 Navy scholarship and a $1,500 prize from the Air Force.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/06/ap_sciencefair_070603/

Kyobanim
06-19-2007, 03:22
Good news.

Now don't post again until you read the stickies, fill out your profile and introduce yourself in the proper place.

CSB
06-19-2007, 22:28
She tested her idea using an AK47 bullet dropped from different heights and varying weights to mimic the impact of a fired weapon shell.

I'd like to see the drop distance that generated 2,500 ~ 3,000 fps velocities.

Still, the idea of a matrix of carbon fibers (even random chopped fibers in the ceramic mix) would probably increase the ability of the ceramic plate to absorb multiple hits without rupturing and would disperse the impact of any one projectile over over a larger area of plate. That's why I would suspect that our R & D guys have already tried matrix, and laminate, construction.