Materials and Design 56 (2014) 3136

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Technical Report

The ballistic performance of SiCAA7075 functionally graded composite

produced by powder metallurgy
Mustafa beyli a,, Erhan Balci b, Bertan Sarikan c, M. Kemal ztas d, Necip Camuscu c, R. Orhan Yildirim e,
mer Keles d
a

Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Engineering Faculty, Mechanical Engineering, Karacaoglan Yerleskesi, 80000 Osmaniye, Turkey
Kocaeli University, Engineering Faculty, Mechanical Engineering, Kocaeli, Turkey
TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Sgtz Cad. No: 43, 06560 Ankara, Turkey
d
Gazi University, Engineering Faculty, Mechanical Engineering, 06570 Maltepe, Ankara, Turkey
e
Middle East Technical University, Engineering Faculty, Mechanical Engineering, Ankara, Turkey
b
c

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 8 January 2013
Accepted 24 October 2013
Available online 9 November 2013

a b s t r a c t
The potential of silicon carbide reinforced Functionally Gradient Material (FGM) to be used as armor
material was investigated under the impact of armor piercing projectile. For this purpose, the SiC
Aluminum Alloy (AA) 7075 functionally graded composite at different thicknesses was produced from
the metallic and ceramic powders via powder metallurgy method. Before the ballistic testing, the
precipitation hardening behavior of the samples was determined. And also, the microstructural characterizations of the samples were done with the aid of microscopy techniques. Next, the FGM samples were
tested using armor piercing projectile to analyze their impact behavior. In the produced samples, some
pore formation was detected. The ballistic experiments showed that the investigated FGMs (up to a
thickness of 25 mm) did not withstand the impact of the projectile. At the tested samples, some major
cracks and plug formation were detected at macrolevel while there were some microcracks, deformed
and elongated grains in the regions near to the deformation zone of the samples.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In defense applications, the development of armor materials
with the possible lowest areal density is very crucial to enhance
maneuver capacity and saving of energy and structural material.
Functionally Gradient Material (FGM) can be considered as a
potential candidate armor material due to its distinctive features
[1]. FGM, consisting of different layers chemically, has properties
varying from one layer to other [24]. For this reason, it may
appear to be a new material type, serving different actions at each
layer. Various techniques have been used in the production of
FGMs [17]. Powder metallurgy is a very suitable method in producing the graded layers containing ceramic particle reinforced
metal matrix composite.
In ballistic attacks, the most widely used threat type is the
projectile with various calibers, core hardness and velocity. Therefore, the ballistic resistance of armor against projectile is strongly
required to be determined. Utilization of a hard outer layer and a
tough inner layer in an FGM may lead to an effective protection
against ballistic threats [1,10]. It is expected that the outer hard
layer erodes and breaks up the projectile whereas the inner tough
layer stops the projectile via absorbing its kinetic energy [1,10].
Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 328 8271000x3685.
E-mail address: mubeyli@osmaniye.edu.tr (M. beyli).
0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2013.10.092

The studies performed on the ballistic behavior of FGMs are

very rare and limited [810]. The ballistic response of TiTiB2
FGM against tungsten cored 7.62 mm projectile was investigated
by Pettersson et al. [8]. They obtained that the FGM showed superior performance compared to the monolithic TiB2 [8]. On the other
hand, Jovicic et al. [9] made a modeling of the ballistic behavior of
gradient armor. And also, they used the nite element analysis to
make a simulation of the investigated structures. In a more recent
study [10], the ballistic behavior of an FGM based on B4CAA7075
against 7.62 mm Armor Piercing (AP) projectile was examined. It
was mentioned that the material did not provide a ballistic protection up to a thickness of 25 mm [10].
In the current study, the production and characterization of the
FGM samples based on silicon carbide reinforced aluminum alloy
7075 were investigated by taking into account of two different
material compositions. The main motivation point of the study
was to clarify the ballistic impact resistance of the silicon carbide
reinforced FGMs.
2. Materials and methods
In this paper, the ballistic performance of SiCAA7075 FGM,
produced by powder metallurgy technique, was investigated
experimentally. The starting raw materials used for the FGM samples considered in this study were metallic and ceramic powders

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M. beyli et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 3136

which were supplied from the market. The mean sizes of aluminum and silicon carbide were measured to be 10 and 33 lm,
respectively. Silicon carbide, one of the hardest ceramic types,
was considered as a reinforcing component to enhance hardness
and abrasive efciency of the FGM. It was added to the middle
and top layers of the two FGM samples at different ratios (Table
1). A heat treatable aluminum alloy, AA7075 was selected to be
the matrix material which can reach much higher hardness and
strength by aging compared to non-aged one [1113]. Aluminum
alloys due to their lower densities compared to steels can promise
a lightweight armor production in some systems such as military
vehicles.
The powders were initially mixed and cold-pressed to form
three green layers separately. And then, they were transferred to
the hot pressing mold at the Powder Metallurgy Lab of TOBB
University of Economics and Technology to combine them by
sintering operation. The operation was performed in liquid phase
sintering condition at 580 C during 40 min to decrease or
completely eliminate the formation of porosity. As well known,
the porosity causes a signicant reduction in the strength, load
carrying capacity and hardness of materials. Moreover, it also
reduces the ballistic resistance of potential armor materials. The
produced and tested FGM samples in this work are given in Table
1. The FGM samples, having a square size of 7 cm and a thickness of
15, 20 and 25 mm, were produced to be tested for the sake of
comparison with our previous study conducted on the boron
carbide reinforced FGMs [10]. After that, the micro-structural analysis was done using a scanning electron microscope, whereas the
average grain size and the porosity level were computed by an
image processing program. Furthermore, the three points bending
testing of the samples was carried out to determine the exural
strength values. Prior to the ballistic testing, the effect of temperature and operation time on the hardness of the FGM samples
was examined during the articial aging treatment at 100 and
150 C for comparison with our previous results gained at 120 C
[7]. The mechanical tests were performed for the FGM specimens
using the ASTM: E10-12 (http://www.astm.org/Standards/
E10.htm) and the ASTM: B528-12 (http://www.astm.org/Standards/B528.htm).
In the hardness testing, the load of 187.5 kg was applied to the
samples with a steel ball of 2.5 mm in diameter whereas, in the
three points bending testing, the sample thickness was considered
to be 15 mm and the force was applied through the composite
layer. The hardness measurements were made every 30 min during
the aging period to monitor the hardness variation apparently. The
hardness measurement was repeated 5 times. In the three points
bending tests, three unique samples were used for testing each
material group. Finally, the mean values were recorded for each
case.
Moreover, the ballistic tests were made using 7.62 mm AP
projectile which is one of the most widely used bullet in armies.
The velocity of the projectile changed between 775 m/s and
800 m/s during the testing of the samples. Five samples for each
sample with the same composition and thickness were subjected
to ballistic shot. After nishing the ballistic tests, the macro and

microobservations on the failed samples were conducted to see

the structural changes and impact damage.
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. Micro-structural observations
Fig. 1 illustrates the micro-view of the AA7075 layer for the
FGM 1. There are some pores formed in the FGM samples after
the production. The porosity level was computed to be 1.3%, 1.4%
and 2.5% at the bottom, middle and top layers of the FGM 1, respectively. On the other hand, it was estimated to be 2.6%, 2.7% and
3.2% at the same layers of the FGM 2, successively. It is clear that
the porosity increased with increasing the ceramic reinforcement
ratio gradually. Although the porosity levels were quite low, the
full densication in the samples was not maintained, most
probably due to high thicknesses of the samples and relatively
low operation pressure. On the other hand, the average grain size
was determined to be between 5.4 and 6.3 lm depending on the
layers for the FGM samples. Moreover, the smooth transition
between the layers is shown in Fig. 2. The formation of a metallurgical bond between the layers allowed for a structural integrity
between the layers with various chemical compositions. The
irregular shaped ceramic particulates can be seen apparently at
different layers of the FGM 2 (Fig. 3).
3.2. Precipitation aging properties
Figs. 4 and 5 represent the aging curves for the FGMs at 100 and
150 C, respectively. Generally, the peak hardness values were
reached within 20 h for the layers of the two FGM types. The
hardness started to increase rapidly at the beginning of the aging
treatment. And then, there was a stabilization or very slow reduction on the hardness observed in the graphs. The response of the
unreinforced bottom layer was found to be very close for the two
FGMs at the same aging temperature. It resembled the proper
repeatability of the FGM production. The highest hardness values
were measured as HB 213, HB 177 and HB 161 for the top, middle
and bottom layers of the FGM 2 at the aging of 120 C, respectively
[7]. The temporal variation in the hardness curves for the three
layers was not affected by the addition of the SiC ceramic particles.
This means that the aging kinetics and formation of coherent
precipitates in the layers were not inuenced by the composite
formation [6,7,10]. Rising the aging temperature to 150 C led to
faster attainment to the peak points and overaging. It would be
suitable to remind that the formation of g0 phase provides a strong
hardening in AA7075 [1113]. For this reason, by the application of
the aging treatment, nano-sized precipitates enhance the hardness

Table 1
The FGM types and compositions produced by powder metallurgy.
FGM type

Top layer
Medium layer
Bottom layer

20% SiC80% AA7075

10% SiC90% AA7075
AA7075

40% SiC60% AA7075

20% SiC80% AA7075
AA7075

Fig. 1. The microstructure of the AA7075 layer for the FGM 1.

M. beyli et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 3136

33

(a) Between bottom and middle layer

(b) Between middle and top layer

Fig. 2. The transition regions between layers for the FGM 1.

and strength of the matrix alloy to a great extent [1113]. The

main contribution to the hardness came from the matrix material,
particularly in the FGM 1.
The three point bending results of the FGMs in two different
thermal treatment conditions are given in Table 2. It is clear that
the aging treatment had a positive effect on the bending strength
of both FGMs since the resistance of the matrix material to plastic
deformation increases with hardness improved by the aging treatment. However, the increment was at a low rate. On the other
hand, an increase in the ceramic content caused a reduction in
the strength level of the FGM. This may be due to the brittle nature
of ceramic particles causing crack initiation more easily in the
matrix. Moreover, the reduction in the volume of matrix material
made the FGM more brittle and sensitive to crack formation. There
were no interfacial cracks found in the samples. This means that a
very good bonding was occurred between the layers.
3.3. Ballistic results
The FGM samples in this work were tested in the peak hardness
condition, derived from the aging curves. The ballistic testing was
performed using the hard steel-cored 7.62 mm AP projectile. The
schematic ballistic setup is depicted in Fig. 6 which was also used
for the testing of boron carbide reinforced FGMs [10]. The ballistic
shots were carried out at the normal direction between the sample
and projectile. All the tests were repeated 5 times for one unique
sample. In addition every sample was subjected to one shot to
see the deformation clearly. The samples were xed at the target
to cover the kinetic energy of projectile and to get a proper impact
between them. The distance between the sample and projectile
exit zone was 20 m.
All the investigated FGM samples were perforated by the
projectile. They did not withstand the projectile impact at all

Fig. 3. The middle (a) and top (b) composite layers of the FGM 2.

thicknesses as in the case of boron carbide reinforced FGMs with

the similar thickness levels [10]. Although the propagation of the
projectile was obtained to be much harder in the samples with higher ceramic content and thickness, the samples were unable to stop
the projectile. Fig. 7 shows a view of 25 mm thick FGM 2 sample after
the ballistic testing. The hole created by the projectile motion is seen
apparently. There are also some major crack formations on the sample. Some part of the kinetic energy of the projectile was mainly consumed by the hole formation and radial crack formation. The
extensive crack formation and breaking in the samples are due to
the relatively lower toughness and ductility of the samples. The reected or generated tensile waves after the projectile hit were not
covered by the FGM samples successfully. Moreover, it is thought
that the pores act as crack initiation and easy propagation sites under the dynamic loading. Although the very hard ceramic particles in
signicant quantity were in the layers of the FGM samples, they
were unable to erode the projectile effectively. This is because of
their distribution as micron-sized particles in a much softer matrix
material acting a low obstacle to the projectile motion. Fig. 8 illustrates the cross-sectional view of the same sample through the projectile propagation. The deformation or shear of the layers occurred
in the sample. However, there was no delamination or separation
observed in the samples. Furthermore, there was no pulverization

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M. beyli et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 3136

(a)

Fig. 6. The setup for the ballistic impact testing of the FGMs [10].

(b)
Fig. 4. The aging curves at 100 C for the SiC reinforced FGM 1 (a) and FGM 2 (b) at
the r top, s middle, t bottom layers.

(a)

(b)
Fig. 5. The aging curves at 150 C for the SiC reinforced FGM 1 (a) and FGM 2 (b)
(the legend as in Fig. 4).

Table 2
Bending strengths of the investigated FGMs.
Bending strength (MPa)
Thermal treatment
As solutionized
As aged

FGM 1
491
510

FGM 2
450
475

of the broken parts in the tested samples. All they mean that the
sintering and so the bonding between the layers can be considered
to be well.
The ballistic impact can lead to microstructural changes in
metallic materials at a great extent [1427]. These changes may
cause crack formation and failure of materials [1420]. There are

two different types of adiabatic band formation in the metallic

materials under high strain rate deformation like ballistic impact
[1420]. Those are called deformed and transformed bands [14
16]. In deformed band, only change in the size and elongation of
grains is observed but no crystal structure change takes place.
However, in transformed band (white band), a phase change occurs
due to the rapid heating and cooling in material [1416]. In a
previous work [21], only the deformed bands containing highly
distorted grains were recorded for a dual phase steel tested by
7.62 mm AP projectile. In earlier studies [22,23], the effect of heat
treatment on the adiabatic band generation was examined in the
steels namely, AISI 4140, AISI 4340 and DIN100Cr6 which were
tested by steel-cored 7.62 mm AP projectile. There were both the
transformed and deformed bands observed in the samples with
the hardness levels of 49 or 59 HRC [22,23]. In addition to that
the hardness level of the transformed bands was found to be much
higher than that of the deformed bands due to the ne grain and
precipitate formation in the transformed bands [22,23]. In a more
recent paper [24], only the deformed band formation was found at
backing layers of the alumina/steel (with dual phase microstructure) laminated composites which were tested by 7.62 mm AP
projectile. Mishra et al. [25] investigated the inuence of tempering temperature on the formation of ASBs. They concluded that
increasing the tempering temperature lowered the formation of
ASBs. In a study related to the ballistic testing of tempered bainitic
steel [26], ASB formation near to the penetration zone and petalling type of deformation were detected. Jena et al. [27] also
observed the adiabatic shear band formations at Al-7017 and
tempered low-alloy steel samples tested by 7.62 mm deformable
projectile. They recorded the shear plugging deformation on the
samples caused by ASBs [27].
The microstructural observations were made on the sections
through the thickness of the samples. In the tested FGM specimens,
only the deformed bands were detected. There were no transformed bands found. Fig. 9 shows the microstructure at the bottom
layer of the 20 mm-thick FGM 1 which is very close to hole created
by the projectile. It is apparent that the elongated and ne grains
formed along with the projectile direction. Upon the impact
between sample and projectile, a signicant amount of heat, causing micro-structural changes, was produced. Rapid heating and
cooling cycle as well as forced deformation caused to the elongated
and ne grain formation in the regions very near to hole. Moreover,
there were some micro-cracks obtained in the tested specimens.
These cracks were often found in connection with the pores. The
pores acted as crack initiation sites under dynamic loading. The
microstructure at the middle layer of the same sample is represented in Fig. 10. Again, there are some ne and directional grains
in the matrix. The deformed bands were detected in the samples

M. beyli et al. / Materials and Design 56 (2014) 3136

35

Fig. 7. The macrophotos of 25 mm thick FGM 2 sample after the ballistic testing: (a) front view, and (b) rear view.

Projectile direction

Projectile affected zone

Fig. 8. The cross-sectional view of the FGM 2 sample after the ballistic testing. The
shear on the layers are seen clearly.
Fig. 10. The microstructure at the middle layer of the 20 mm-thick FGM 1 after the
ballistic testing.

in comparison to the alumina/aluminum alloy [28] and alumina/

steel [29] laminated composites.
Deformed and
elongated
grains

4. Conclusions
The investigated FGMs did not show the successful ballistic
protection at all investigated thickness and compositions. In order
to get a full ballistic protection design, the FGMs with a thickness
greater than 25 mm would be required. Nevertheless, in this case
the FGMs would be not a good solution to make a lightweight
armor production. The deformation type of the FGMs was found
to be brittle in general. There were some major cracks and plug
formation at the tested samples at macrolevel. And also, there were
some microcracks, deformed and elongated grains especially in the
regions near to the deformation or impact zone of the samples.
Acknowledgement
_
This work was supported by the Research Fund of TBITAK,
_
Project # 110M034. The authors are thankful to TBITAK
for its
support. Moreover, they also thank to MKE Silahsan A.S. (Krkkale)
for its support on the ballistic tests.

Fig. 9. The microstructure at the bottom layer of the 20 mm-thick FGM 1 after the
ballistic testing.

after the ballistic testing while there was no transformed band

formation observed. Moreover, the investigated FGMs did not
appear to be a good candidate for lightweight armor production

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