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Ceramics are used in ballistic protection applications for their high hardness and compressive strength; however, they are brittle and shock-sensitive. Co-continuous ceramic composite (C4) infused with a ductile phase can compensate for the brittleness of the ceramic and increase energy absorption with a potential weight reduction in comparison with present multilayer armours. Nevertheless, the research on C4 for armour applications is in its infant stage. This article aims to investigate the energy absorption characteristics of C4 composites with ballistic grade Al5083 infiltrated into different volume fractions of SiC foam (10PPI, 20PPI and 30PPI). The infiltrated C4 samples have 13, 15 and 18 volume percent of SiC in 10PPI-C4, 20PPI-C4 and 30PPI-C4 respectively. The uniaxial compression test of C4 samples revealed that 30PPI-C4 samples have 135 times high compression strength than ceramic preforms and hardness of C4 also enhanced by 13% for 30PPI-C4 samples. The gas gun impact and Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) tests on the 30PPI-C4 specimens reveals that their specific energy absorption (SEA) are 78% and 30% higher than those of 10PPI-C4 and 20PPI-C4 respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A co-continuous ceramic composite (C4) was manufactured by gravity infiltration. The effect of varying machining parameters namely, speed, feed and depth of cut during end milling of C4, on the multi-responses of surface roughness, tool wear and depth of cut was investigated using response surface methodology. Non-linear regression models were generated and optimal machining parameters were determined using desirability analysis. Confirmation experiments performed, validated the models with a ± 5 % error in prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-continuous composites have potential in friction and braking applications due to their unique tribological characteristics. The present study involves Taguchi grey relational analysis-based optimization of wear parameters such as applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance, and their effect on dry sliding wear performance of AA6063/SiC co-continuous composite manufactured by gravity infiltration. A Taguchi L9 orthogonal array was designed and nine experimental runs were performed based on the designed experiments. The coefficient of wear and specific wear rate were recorded for each experiment. Based on the average responses computed from Taguchi grey relational analysis, an applied load of 60 N, sliding speed of 1 m/s and sliding distance of 1000 m were estimated to be the optimal parameters. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to identify the predominant factor and established all the three factors as being significant. The sliding distance was found to have the highest significant influence of 61.05% on the wear of the C4 composite. Confirmation experiments conducted using the optimal parameters indicated an improvement of 35.25% in grey relational grade. Analysis of the worn surfaces of the confirmation experiment revealed adhesive and abrasive wear as the governing mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]