Deformation Behavior and Microstructural Evolution of Armox 500T with Varying Strain Rates and Temperatures

Armour steels have long been used for ballistic performance application purposes as they provide high hardness, toughness, and strength to resist penetration. However, literature lacks a complete understanding of failure mode analysis under various stress-loading conditions. This thesis explores the microstructure and evolution of Armox 500T as well as the correlated stress-strain data to characterize and gain a deeper understanding of its behaviour under compression, tension, and torsion with temperatures ranging from 0°C - 400°C. Results indicate that performance was increased in high strain rate compression at elevated temperatures up to 200°C, withstanding 2.0% more impact momentum and 3.7% higher toughness than room temperature samples. Temperatures above 200°C showed compromised microstructural properties and decreased performance. At 400°C high strain rate compression, the samples fractured at lower impact momentum and displayed increased brittleness and microhardness. In a reduced temperature of 0°C, low strain rate tensile test conditions decreased toughness by 11.8%.