Diamond Armor

Is diamond armor feasible?

I mean lets pretend cost was not an option, and somehow we've developed a way to artificially produce diamonds. When I say artificially I don't mean out of synthetic materials, I mean if we could simulate the process used to create diamonds.

So, would diamonds work as armor? Would it make lets say a tank nearly invincible?

It would probably be extremely heavy and not very flexible. Thats sort of like just wearing a tungsten plate on your chest. Tough, but not practical.

We CAN simulate the process of diamond production... there was a news article posted here not too terribly long ago that featured technology that can create the immense pressure required to turn carbon into diamonds. You can make them out of peanut butter!

It certainly seems plausible to me that diamonds could work as armour. You could cover a tank in diamond sheets, or even perhaps create a mesh for body armour.

[edit on 22/8/07 by Pelagoshin]

I said for a tank or armored vehicle, not body armor. Sorry I was not clear.

Yeah diamond armor would restrict movements unless you found a way to make a chain-mail type of thing out of it.

A long time ago I was reading into a substance called Carbon 60.

It was much like a diamond compound but much stronger. And could be made into armor.. The only issue I see with Armor that is almost invicible would be the person inside of it.. The armor could take the hit, but the person inside would be turned to goo almost instantly..

I'm talking about VEHICLES, not body armor.

Sorry single line post.

[edit on 8/22/2007 by Kacen]

Although diamond is one of, if not "the" hardest substances on Earth, it is also extremely brittle. So no, diamond would make terrible armor.

In short, no, diamonds would'nt be the best idea.

While diamonds are incredibly hard, they are more useful as a weapon than
as a defencive coating.

I forget what it's called, it was discovered by some Israeli scientists two years ago,
anyways it was either a kind of diamond that was like 40 times harder or based
on them, I think that would be a better idea.

Of course what you would really want to go for is Carbon Nano-tubes, a huge
amount stronger than steel, but much, much lighter at the same time.

I wonder if you could alloy it with steel, it would make Carbon Steel look like butter.

Manufactured diamonds are old news, there are several ways currently being used to mfg diamond. One way is to use a small natural "seed" diamond to start the agggregation process, then carbon is added under extreme pressure and diamond grows around the seed.At this point in time only de beers can tell the difference between a natural diamond and an artificial one. A diamond coating can be applied to some surfaces, through chemical vapor deposition or physical vapor deposition, where a layer 1 atom to several micron thick can be laid down. It is also possible to coat certain plastics with a diamod coating by putting them in a pressure chamber filled with acetelyene and bombarding it with high power microwaves.
Although diamond is the hardest natural substance it is very brittle. At around 2800 degrees diamond turns back to graphite. As an amour it would be a terrible idea.
carbon 60, commonly known as bucky balls has a soccer ball like atomic structure, is a fullerene found in soot . Although it has some interesting electrical properties c60 would be useless as a structural material. Other fullerenes include carbon nanotubules, carbon nanotubules have a tremendous tension strength due to the strength of the carbon-carbon bond, but are very dificult and expensive to produce. Carbon fabrics are only as stong as their resins used to set them.
Modern battle tanks in the "west" the challenger, ahbrams, lepoard are all using a metal matrix composite armour, consisting of a ceramic composite laminated to a metalic layer. The ceramics are possibly boron carbide or cubic boron nitride and aluminum oxide reinforced with carbon whiskers (nano tubules) and bonded to a Ti or aluminum matrix or steel armour plate.
Steel IS an alloy of carbon and iron, adding diamonds to the mix only adds more carbon as the iron will absorb it as carbon. The affinity of iron for carbon is why diamond cuting tools arent used to cut steels or irons, the heat at the cutting edge turns the diamond to graphite which is absorbed by the iron.

As you've read, a brittle substance like diamond is not currently a good alternative for vehicular armor. So far, the best type of armor for vehicles is Reactive Armor

The kind of projectiles used are also a factor. Some types will send a shell that liquefies and turns into a high pressure jet of hot gas and plasma penetrating the toughest armor. Other types will target the top of the vehicle near the hatch where armor is thinnest.

Reactive armor senses the contact of flack and instantly explodes sending a pressure wave that will hopefully neutralize the projectile (deflection) or by causing the armor to thicken in the area, making it more resistant.

Of course once a reactive plate has been used it has to be replaced. A double charge shot can defeat it, for instance.

There's also 'electro-reactive armor' which sends out a charge possibly liquifying the projectile and neutralizing it that way.

Originally posted by Zenagain
Although diamond is one of, if not "the" hardest substances on Earth, it is also extremely brittle. So no, diamond would make terrible armor.

In theory, this could work, except for one thing.cleaveage. (stop laughing!)
A diamond will shatter if you strike it along a certain plane.
here read this
en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 31-8-2007 by ShadeWolf]

I remember watching a special about new weapons on the disocvery cahnnel and they had a new type of armor called Dragon skin. It was nearly indestructable, and they tested AP bullets on it and they still did nothing. they put it on a dummy and unloaded about 400 bullets into it and there were little baby b.b. holes in it but not a single peirce.

here's the link.Dragon skin

If we could somehow manufacture spider silk, or learn how to use natural spider silk, you'd have one very strong and very elastic material:

Weight-for-weight, spider silk has a much higher tensile strength than steel, and is about five times as strong as a piece of steel of the same diameter. This enormous strength is the result of the structure and composition of the silk. Its filaments are mainly composed of a polymerised protein called fibroin made up mostly of the amino acids glycine, alanine, serine and tyrosine. This gives the silk not only its strength, but also a fantastic elasticity.

Source

Armor made purely of diamond would not be very feasible for kinetic armor, but it does have applications against energy weapons. Diamond has an incredible heatsink capability, so if it is blended with something like tungsten carbide, you could have an armor that could withstand strikes from high energy lasers, and even plasma weaponry. So by the time we have the capability of armoring vehicles with diamond, the weapons we need to protect against will probably exist.

Originally posted by Falconer13
Armor made purely of diamond would not be very feasible for kinetic armor, but it does have applications against energy weapons. Diamond has an incredible heatsink capability,

I don;t think so...

it's actually less than graphite
www.engineeringtoolbox.com...
- 0.52 compared to .72 KJ/Kg - and less than other common materials like concrete, which is also cheaper