Fabian Delorme
French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis, France
Advanced ceramics for ballistic protection
Abstract:
In the field of ballistic protection, a wide range of materials can be used, such as natural materials (cork, wood, …), metals, glass, ceramics, polymers or composites. Ceramics are widely used as front–face in dual hardness solutions for their unique combination of high hardness and low density.
While boron carbide (B4C) and silicon carbide (SiC) offer the best performance, their high cost limits their widespread use. Alumina (Al2O3), which is more affordable, is particularly favored for armored vehicle protection, although it has lower ballistic protection efficiency.
This keynote will explore how new materials, advanced sintering processes, and controlled microstructures can lead to improved ballistic protection properties. Indeed, if intrinsic properties of materials are linked to chemical bonds and crystallographic structure, microstructural features can significantly contribute to the final ballistic protection properties of ceramics.
Biography:
Fabian Delorme has been working on the development of materials and ceramics for almost 30 years. He obtained his PhD in 2002 at the CRISMAT laboratory (University of Caen, France), which focused on the relationships between microstructural features and high-temperature superconducting properties of TSMTG bulk cuprates. He worked at the French Geological Survey as the characterization of solids group leader until 2008. He was then hired by Corning to take charge of the Crystalline Materials Research group. In 2011, he joined the GREMAN laboratory (University of Tours – France) as a senior research associate to develop thermoelectric oxide ceramics, and then in 2018, the University of Sheffield to develop new microwave dielectric ceramics. In 2020, he joined the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL) as head of the Advanced Materials and Mechanical Testing group. His present research focuses on advanced materials for ballistic protection.
He is the author of approximately 100 scientific publications (articles, book chapters, and patents). He is a member of the French and German associations for Spark Plasma Sintering and was a member of the organizing committee of several conferences during the last 5 years (GFDM-FACE, DYMAT, Expertenkreis Field-assisted Sintering Technique Spark Plasma Sintering, …). He has also been involved in many national French research projects and in several European projects.