| Posted: January 17, 2007 |
Carbon nanofibers strengthen Humvees |
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(Nanowerk News) Ohio researchers are creating stronger armor to protect U.S. troops riding in Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan. The hope is to have the armor developed within a year to protect against the roadside bombs that cause the majority of American casualties.
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Brian Rice, a chemical engineer at the University of Dayton Research Institute, is incorporating microscopic carbon nanofibers to strengthen the armor so it can withstand shrapnel and high-velocity bullets.
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"If we double the effectiveness, that would be huge," Rice said.
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The armor is being developed under a five-year, $15 million Army research contract.
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Gunnery Sgt. Shawn Delgado, of Columbus-based Lima Company, 3 rd Battalion, 25 th Marines, said he welcomes any improvements.
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Humvees were never designed to carry the extra weight of heavier armor, he said. Suspensions, transmissions and engines suffer.
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"If we had the same strength or more strength at half the weight, it would help," said Delgado, who was wounded by shrapnel from a rocket attack in Iraq.
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He has served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, and is back in Columbus now.
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In June, Army spokesman John Boyce Jr. said more than 25,300 armored Humvees are in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The Dayton scientists are working with TPI Composites, in Springfield, on an all-composite armored vehicle for the Army, and Armor Holdings, of Fairfield, which makes and installs steel plates in military Humvees.
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In the realm of nanotechnology, carbon nanofibers are considered large. Still, a stack of 1,000 would equal the diameter of a human hair.
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They work because billions of tiny particles have a surface area much greater than smaller numbers of larger particles, just as a pile of sawdust has more surfaces than the original block of wood.
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"You have a 100-fold increase in surface area, so you have a lot more energy dissipation," Rice said.
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Composites are layers of material held together by a gluelike resin made even stickier by the increased surface area.
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The technology also can toughen components for aircraft wings and propellers, said Gerald Glasgow, a scientist at Applied Sciences, in Cedarville, which is supplying the carbon nanofibers for the armor research.
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These nanofibers have unique electrical and chemical properties as well, Glasgow said, and could allow a tank crew, for example, to monitor armor for battle damage.
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