Armour - three-spoke dovetailing tiles - trispokedovetiles

[Peter Dow]

Trispokedovetiles: Three-spoke dovetailing tiles

trispokedovetiles_600.png

I've programmed a webpage using Javascript to display an animation which shows a range of different trispokedovetiles, each of which can be specified by a "CIRCLE" percentage, which is the ratio as a percent of two parameters -

• A "HEXAGON" parameter length - always nominally "100%"
• A "CIRCLE" parameter length - the animation varies this between 100% and 135%, though values up to 150% can be drawn.

You can also use the webpage to specify a "CIRCLE" percentage and click to "Draw TRISPOKEDOVETILES" to generate an image of a tessellation of a particular shape of trispokedovetiles.

I've tested the animation in Chrome and Internet Explorer browsers and it works fine for me but it is not working in Firefox for some as yet unknown reason.

I've named the shape Trispokedovetile which is a contraction of "tri-spoke dovetailing tile".

• "tri-spoke" because the shape is similar to a 3-spoke motorcycle
  wheel with three bites taken out of it.
• "dovetailing" because the tiles interlock like a dovetail joint

Possible application to tiled armour

One issue with hexagonal or square armour tiles is that such simple shapes don't interlock naturally, as do jigsaw puzzle pieces.

Whilst a little armour tile movement normal to the armour plane is useful in absorbing the kinetic energy of a ballistic impact, such as from a bullet and better than the armour tile absorbing the same kinetic energy by shattering, on the other hand, tile movement tangential to the armour plane leaves most unwelcome gaps in the armour.

So armour tiles shaped like jigsaw puzzle shapes (or some hexagonal variation such as these trispokedovetiles) could perform well in this application.

[Peter Dow]

Now to consider the important issue of interlocking trispokedovetiles against movement in the direction normal to the tiled plane, which for the application of tiled armour would be the normal to the armour surface, in the direction of a bullet's path.
BILAYER TRISPOKEDOVETILES
I propose that the unit armour tile be comprised of 2 joined trispokedovetiles with matching HEXAGON parameters but each with a different CIRCLE percentage.
 
For example, suppose we choose trispokedovetiles with CIRCLE = 100% and 121%.

C100.jpg

C121.jpg

The reason for choosing C100 for the outer layer of the armour is because its 120 degree angle corners would be more robust.
 
The reason for choosing C121 for the inner layer of the armour is because CIRCLE = 121% offers the largest percentage where the neck attaching the outer part rings is at least twice the thickness of the ring, attempting to balance the robustness of the ring parts to the robustness of the neck versus tensile stresses.

why121.jpg

 

[Peter Dow]

Stacking and joining those together forms a bilayer trispokedovetile, "C100+C121".

C100C121.jpg

C100+C121_3D.jpg

Drawing the 2 layers semi-transparently we can see how the bilayer trispokedovetiles would interlock in the normal to the plane.

100+121_crop.jpg

2/3rds of the tiles can be slotted together, either the yellows and the blues or the yellows and the purples or the blues and the purples.
 
However the final 1/3rd of the tiles would not simply slot in and would have be inserted by joining the two halves of the bilayer trispokedovetile in situ.

[Peter Dow]

For Computer-Aided Manufacturing of trispokedovetiles, I'm publishing today my new Javascript web-page -

Trispokedovetiles: CNC code to cut tiles web-page G-code generator [LINK]

- which generates Computer Numerical Control (CNC) code which I've tested with CNC Simulator Pro [LINK] but not on a real CNC cutter as yet.

UPDATE

HOLES!
Now cut trispokedovetiles by CNC laser cutter with (or without) HOLES!

[Peter Dow]

TRISPOKEDOVETILES ROUTER CUTTING

My trispokedovetile CAD-CAM webpage now offers an (X,Y,Z) option for router cutting using rotary tool paths between spaced out tiles -

trispokedovetiles_spaced.png

I've simulated the CNC router code -

routersimulation.jpg