[IzzieC (OP)]

Tom wants to know:

"What material is used for the engine and track design of War Tanks?"

Can you help?

[chris]

I think hardened steel. The materials science of the military is a fascinating business. Cambridge scientists are using a knowledge of how forces are transmitted by materials to mitigate bomb blasts by dissipating the energy:

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/bomb-proof-materials

[puppypower]

They also use ceramics and metal-ceramic composite materials. Ceramics are very hard and very heat resistant. They can handle very high compression loads; surface explosion, but do not have very good tensile strength. Adding metals to form metal-ceramics composites can toughen them up.

The inexpensive countermeasure is depleted uranium bullets and projectiles. Uranium is very dense; 19.1 gram/cm. it is also very hard. Uranium has a Mohs hardness factor of 6.0, as compared to iron which is 4.0.

When a uranium bullet or projectile hits a hardened tank surface, it will shatter the hardened materials causing an explosion of metal and ceramic debris inside the tank. A tank is better designed for a shell hit. The explosive forces will be dispersed as compression and heat across the hardened surfaces. Tanks don't like a pin point hit by uranium projectiles.

One countermeasure is to soften the shell of the tank so the uranium can penetrate, but not shatter large sectors of hardened material. If you also wish to maintain the hardness needed for shell blasts, then you might design in terms of material geometries, such as the honeycomb; tough and pliable.

[Bored chemist]

Uranium has a Mohs hardness factor of 6.0, as compared to iron which is 4.0.

Nobody uses pure iron for construction.
Steel has a hardness that varies between about  and  so it's roughly as hard as uranium.
You don't usually want hard materials for armour, you want tough ones.
Hard metals are usually brittle and that's no use as armour.

The inexpensive countermeasure is depleted uranium bullets and projectiles.

I doubt that depleted uranium is as cheap as steel.

[syhprum]

Those that are squeamish about warfare which is basically about doing the worst you can possibly think of to your enemy because your cause is more righteous worry about residual radioactivity of DU but if you are going to be hit by 10gms travelling at 3 times the speed of sound that would be the least of your worries !