ISSN: 2319-7293
D.K. Garba, A.U. Alhaji & O.F. Agboola
The Armoured Tank Panel (ATP) of the Main Battle Tank (MBT) and two steel products produced in Nigeria, the Nigerian Steel 65 Manganese (NST 65 Mn) and Nigeria-Spanish Steel rods (SS Steel) were studied with a view of using the better of the two steel products as the base material for the production of High Impact resisting Material in Nigeria. The chemical analysis of the ATP, NST 65 Mn steel and SS steel was carried out using the Minipal 4 energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometer according to ASTM E572-02a (2006) e2. The results of the chemical analysis carried out to characterize the materials revealed that the ATP has total alloy content of 5.356%, NST 65 Mn steel has 2.2% and SS steel has 2.51% total alloy content and the rest is Iron. Rockwell hardness test on B - Scale according to ASTM A370, ASTM E10 and ASTM E18 standard was carried out and averages taken. The ATP was averaged at 117 HRB, NST 65 Mn steel 84.8 HRB and SS steel was averaged at 83.5 HRB. The impact test was carried out using ASTM E23 standards, for Charpy 45o V- notch. The results of the tests were also averaged with ATP averaged at 109 Joules, NST 65 Mn steel 70 Joules and SS steel 67 Joules. These results showed that the ATP had better mechanical properties than both the NST 65 Mn steel and SS steel. It also revealed that NST 65 Mn steel has better mechanical properties than SS steel and therefore the best choice as base material for the production of armoured tank panel from locally sourced materials in Nigeria.