YSU students are testing materials designed to protect U.S. soldiers

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

Youngstown

Youngstown State University students are playing a role in protecting United States soldiers in combat.

Tim Wagner, YSU chemistry professor, along with engineers from Fireline TCON Inc. are developing materials. Mechanical- engineering technology students test these materials in the university’s 3D ballistics-testing lab in the basement of Moser Hall.

“This is a high-tech lab,” Wagner said, adding that it’s rare to find such a facility at a university.

Mark Peters, general manager at Fireline TCON Inc., said it’s part of a $1.2 million research project that also involves the Army Research Lab.

“It will allow us to evaluate [the material] against a ballistic threat,” he said.

The Youngstown company manufactures high-performance ceramics.

The Army Research Lab will use the findings and material for force-protection materials to protect soldiers and vehicles in combat, the university said in a news release.

Brian Vuksanovich, an assistant professor and ballistics expert, said the material is lighter but just as strong as the steel that’s being used for the military’s protection.

“It’s castable, so it can be made into any shape,” he said.

Senior Michelle Curl of Leetonia enjoys working in the lab.

“It’s awesome that we’re working on a ballistics project,” she said. “I don’t know of many schools that have a setup like this.”

Students use the program’s closed-range ballistic testing for the research trials. Students designed the ballistic tester for the research. A computer system records and processes test data. The enclosed system is equipped with lighting and two high-speed color cameras that can capture up to 150,000 frames per second.

Students place a material sample into the tester, then use the firing system to shoot a rifle cartridge with an M-80 projectile down a tube, past two chronographs that record the speed. The cameras record the impact of the projectile on the material sample, and students analyze the video to see how it performed.

In one of the tests performed for media Wednesday, the projectile penetrated the first later of the material but shattered when it hit the second layer.

Vuksanovich said the layers are composed of different formulas of the material.

The information is sent to Fireline for analysis.

Vuksanovich said in a news release that representatives from the Army Research Lab visited YSU last July and were pleased with the early findings.