Metal Foam Armor

[tb-av]

http://gizmodo.com/watch-this-metal-foam-annihilate-an-armor-piercing-bull-1769572121


“We could stop the bullet at a total thickness of less than an inch, while the indentation on the back was less than 8 millimeters. To put that in context, the National Institute of Justice standard allows up to 44 millimeters indentation in the back of an armor.”

[ColtSeavers]

I want to believe, but then I remember things like DragonSkin.

Definately cool though.

[ScottsBad]

Wow, if it's true this could save some lives. Too bad they don't provide more info, like how much does it weigh, can it take more than one strike in the same place, how much would it cost relative to other similar products, Etc.

[nova3930]

A metallic "foam" definitely jives with the physics of dissipating impact energy and preventing penetrations. One of my college professors helped design the micro-meteoroid shielding on the ISS. According to him the shielding was composed of a pile of very thin layers, almost like aluminum foil. As penetration happens of each layer, the energy and particulate matter spreads in a cone shape on the back side, so each intervening layer spreads the impact over a larger and larger area.

With a metallic foam you're essentially talking about randomized air gaps throughout the material. Considering the velocity difference between weapon projectiles and micro-meteoroids, it should be more than sufficient.

[Averageman]

http://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2016/0409/Bullet-stopping-foam-Not-sci-fi-after-all
More here on this.

[Honu]

then again everything is armor piercing to most press folks ? :)