This volume provides a one-stop resource, compiling current research on ceramic armor and addressing the challenges facing armor manufacturers. It is a collection of papers from The American Ceramic Society s 32nd International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, January 27-February 1, 2008.

Preface. Introduction. TRANSPARENT GLASSES AND CERAMICS. Mesomechanical Constitutive Relations for Glass and Ceramic Armor (D.R. Curran, D.A. Shockey, and J.W. Simons). Optimizing Transparent Armor Design Subject to Projectile Impact Conditions (Xin Sun, Kevin C. Lai, Tara Gorsich, and Douglas W. Templeton). Physics of Glass Failure during Rod Penetration (D.A. Shockey, D. Bergmannshoff, D.R. Curran, and J.W. Simons). Adhesive Bond Evaluation in Laminated Safety Glass using Guided Wave Attenuation Measurements (S. Hou and H. Reis). Applying Modeling Tools to Predict Performance of Transparent Ceramic Laminate Armors (C.G. Fountzoulas, J.M. Sands, G.A. Gilde, and P.J. Patel). An Economic Comparison of Hot Pressing vs. Pressureless Sintering for Transparent Spinel Armor (A. LaRoche, K. Rozenburg, J. Voyles, L. Fehrenbacher, and Gary Gilde). Advances in Ballistic Performance of Commercially Available Saint-Gobain Sapphire Transparent Armor Composites (Christopher D. Jones, Jeffrey B. Rioux, John W. Locher, Vincent Pluen, and Matthias Mandelartz). Defect Free Spinel Ceramics of High Strength and High Transparency (Juan L. Sepulveda, Raouf 0. Loutfy, and Sekyung Chang). OPAQUE CERAMICS. Recent Results on the Fundamental Performance of a Hot-Pressed Silicon Carbide Impacted by Sub-scale Long-Rod Penetrators (Jeny C. LaSalvia, Brian Leavy, Herbert T. Miller, Joshua R. Houskamp, and Ryan C. McCuiston). Instrumented Hertzian Indentation Study of Two Commerical Silicon Carbides (H.T. Miller, R.C. McCuiston, and J.C. LaSalvia). Apparent Yield Strength of Hot-Pressed Sics (W.L. Daloz, A.A. Wereszczak, and O.M. Jadaan). Microstructural Examination and Quasi-Static Property Determination of Sintered Armor Grade Sic (Memduh V. Demirbas, Richard A. Haber, and Raymond E. Brennan). Quantitative Characterization of Localized Amplitude Variations in Silicon Carbide Ceramics using Ultrasound C-Scan Imaging (Raymond Brennan, James McCauley, Richard Haber, and Dale Niesz). Grain Boundary Engineering of Silicon Carbide by Means of Coprecipitation (Steven Mercurio, Mihaela Jitianu, and Richard A. Haber). The Possible Roles of Stoichiometry, Microstructure, and Defects on the Mechanical Behavior of Boron Carbide (Ryan McCuiston, Jeny LaSalvia, James McCauley, and William Mayo). A Review of Ceramics for Armor Applications (P.G. Karandikar, G. Evans, S. Wong, M.K. Aghajanian, and M. Sennett). NOVEL EVALUATION AND CHARACTERIZATION. A Portable Microwave Scanning Technique for Nondestructive Testing of Multilayered Dielectric Materials (Karl Schmidt, Jack Little, and William A. Ellingson). Ballistic Damage Assessment of a Thin Compound Curved B4C Ceramic Plate using XCT (J.M. Wells and N.L. Rupert). Evaluation of Ballistically-Induced Damage in Ceramic Targets by X-Ray Computed Tomography (William H. Green, Herbert T. Miller, Jerry C. LaSalvia, Datta P. Dandekar, and Daniel Casem). Automated Nondestructive Evaluation System for Hard Armor Protective Inserts of Body Armor (Nicholas Haynes, Karl Masters, Chris Perritt, David Simmons, James Zheng, and James E. Youngberg). Analysis of Hardness Indentation Size Effect (ISE) Curves in Ceramics: A New Approach to Determine Plasticity (Trevor E. Wilantewicz and James W. McCauley). Author Index.