Journal of Physics Special Topics

P1_6 Iron Armour

E. I. Spender, L. J. Holdsworth, A. L. Bentley, A. R. Fogg
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH.
October 29, 2015
Abstract
The feasibility of protective suit, such as the one worn by the character Iron Man, is investigated
along with applications of similar technology on modern day military vehicles. It was found that a
protective suit of armour for personal use is unrealistic as it would have to be about 3m thick,
however the technology could be applied to large vehicles such as ships or tanks.

Introduction
Iron Man is a popular character from the Marvel Comics and Cinematic Universe, he
possesses an armoured suit that, among other fictional technological powers, has the ability to
withstand large amounts of trauma without any damage to the occupant [1]. In this paper we
examine the feasibility of the suit taking a direct hit from a tank shell and the wearer surviving, as
seen in the film Iron Man (2008) [2]. The suit seems to work by absorbing the energy released
from impact through internal dampers, reducing the impact by decelerating an object over a
longer time to reduce the force applied.
Theory
A commonly used tank shell is the HESH L31 (High Explosive Squash Head) [3] and when
fired from a Challenger 2 tank has a muzzle velocity of 670 ms-1[4]. The shell is modelled as
staying intact and upon striking the suit accelerates the suit, initially moving as one body, as
shown in the figure below. The mass of a HESH L31 shell is about 17.1kg [5] and the mass of Iron
Mans suit, with him inside is 425lb [1], 192.77 kg, so the combined mass is 209.87 kg. By equating
momentum before and after the collision (1) the velocity of the shell and the suit with the user
inside can be found, V is velocity and M is mass.

Figure 1 - The shell colliding with the suit.

Iron Armour, October 29, 2015.

M 1V 1 + M 2V 2 = (M 1 + M 2)V 3 (1)[6]

The velocity after the collision, V3, is found to be 54.6 ms-1

. If both bodies were rigid and
did not distort upon colliding the acceleration of Iron Man would be enormous. To prevent the
sudden acceleration from killing the user, the suit needs to decelerate the projectile sufficiently to
prevent harm. Research has already been done on the relationship of g force to brain trauma, the
main cause of trauma deaths in motorsport crashes [7]. G force is a method of describing
acceleration in terms of the Earths gravitational acceleration [8], 2 g is 19.62 ms-1
. The maximum
g force a person can experience in an impact without significant risk of brain trauma is 50 g [7].
This is assuming an impact is a large force applied for a very short amount of time. To calculate the
distance over which the shell needs to be decelerated, or conversely the distance over which Iron
Man needs to be accelerated by the shell, to prevent brain injury is found using the equation of
motion
V 2 = U 2 + 2AS (2)[9]
A = gforce 9.81ms2 (3)[8]

Where V is the velocity of the two projectiles, U is the initial velocity of Iron Man, A is the
acceleration and S is the distance over which the shell needs to be decelerated. The distance for
deceleration and therefore the the length of the damper, is found to be 3m. If Iron Man was
moving in the opposite direction to the shell upon collision, towards it, then this length would be
greater. This length of the damper clearly makes a wearable suit unrealistic, it would have to be
3m in every direction, the width of a challenger tank is 3.5m or 4.2m with appliqu armour [3].
However when considering a vehicle such as a military ship like HMS Ocean with a beam (width) of
35m[10], a 3m increase in armour thickness to reduce the velocity of blunt force projectiles is
more realistic.
Conclusion
Creating a suit of armour that protects the user from extreme impacts has been shown to
be possible, but not feasible. Assumptions such as the materials of the suit not breaking under
impact and the damping mechanism being perfectly efficient both lead to a reduced dampener
length. Also when a HESH round hits a target it flattens and detonates plastic explosive to
maximise damage to the target, this may reduce the blunt force impact but increase the overall
force through the explosion. While a suit of armour for an individual is unrealistic, armour that
crumples to decelerate projectiles is possible on a larger scale, but may not have as much of an
effect on explosive or penetrating rounds.
References
[1]
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Man_(Anthony_%22Tony%22_Stark)
-accessed on
29/10/2015
[2]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371746/
-accessed on 29/10/2015
[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_2
-accessed on 29/10/2015
[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L30
-accessed on 29/10/2015
[5]
http://www.kotsch88.de/m_120mm-L11.htm
-accessed on 29/10/2015
[6]
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/elacol2.html
-accessed on 29/10/2015

[7]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16531891
-accessed on 29/10/2015
[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force
-accessed on 29/10/2015
[9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equations_of_motion
-accessed on 29/10/2015
[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ocean_(L12)#cite_note-Handbook-2
-accessed on
29/10/2015