Simulation of the Performance of Kevlar Impregnated Shear Thickening Fluid Ballistic Test Results (STF) Ballistic Test Results

Riduwan Prasetya, Andoko Andoko, Suprayitno Suprayitno, Retno Wulandari, Prihanto Trihutomo, Kenji Mishima, Dawid Janas

Abstract


This study explores the enhancement of Kevlar fabric’s ballistic performance through impregnation with Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) for potential application in soft body armor. The experimental approach often fails to elucidate mechanical phenomena critical for the development of lightweight and high-strength body armor designs. To address this limitation, the finite element method, specifically using ANSYS/LS-DYNA R.13, was employed for a comprehensive analysis. The simulation aimed to evaluate the impact of STF on Kevlar fabric by assessing projectile velocity, force exerted by the projectile onto the fabric, displacement, stress distribution, and fabric failure mechanisms. Kevlar yarn was modeled as a shell element formed into fabric with a sine wave profile, investigating two types of STF: SiO2-PEG200 (S0) and SiO2-PEG200-B4C (S1), differing in maximum viscosities. The addition of STF resulted in increased coefficients of friction on Kevlar, with the highest values observed for the SiO2-PEG200-B4C impregnated fabric (  =0.87 and =0.82). The incorporation of the second STF type (S1) significantly reduced the projectile’s velocity from an initial 200 m/s to 153.2 m/s upon impact. Additionally, the force on the S1 fabric surged to 121,556 N, a threefold increase compared to neat Kevlar. STF's influence was further evidenced by enhanced fabric displacement and more uniform stress distribution upon ballistic impact. The fabric's thickening upon failure indicated STF's ability to enlarge the deformation area, facilitating uniform distribution of ballistic kinetic energy across the impact zone. Notably, the fabric impregnated with the second type of STF, featuring boron carbide (S1), demonstrated superior ballistic performance. This study concludes that STF-impregnated Kevlar fabric, particularly the SiO2-PEG200-B4C variant, not only surpasses the ballistic performance of neat Kevlar but also meets the criteria for NIJ Level IIIA standards, highlighting its potential as a highly effective material for advanced soft body armor designs.


Keywords


Ballistics, performance, Kevlar, simulation, STF

Full Text:

PDF

References


S. Bocetta, "The History of Body Armor, From Medieval Times to Today | Small Wars Journal." Accessed: Apr. 29, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-history-of-body-armor-from-medieval-times-to-today

U. Mawkhlieng and A. Majumdar, "Soft body armor," Textile Progress, vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 139–224, Apr. 2019, doi: 10.1080/00405167.2019.1692583.

A. N. Nair, S. Sundharesan, and I. S. M. A. Tubi, "Kevlar-based Composite Material and its Applications in Body Armor: A Short Literature Review," IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng., vol. 987, no. 1, p. 012003, Nov. 2020, doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/987/1/012003.

I. G. Crouch, "Body armor – New materials, new systems," Defence Technology, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 241–253, Jun. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.dt.2019.02.002.

S. Gürgen, W. Li, and M. C. Kuşhan, "The rheology of shear thickening fluids with various ceramic particle additives," Materials & Design, vol. 104, pp. 312–319, Aug. 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.matdes.2016.05.055.

L. Wang, Z. Du, W. Fu, and P. Wang, "Study of mechanical property of shear thickening fluid (STF) for soft body-armor," Mater. Res. Express, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 045021, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.1088/2053-1591/abf76a.

M. Zhao, J. Zhang, Z. Peng, and J. Zhang, "Effect of nano-solid particles on the mechanical properties of shear thickening fluid (STF) and STF-Kevlar composite fabric," Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics, vol. 16, p. 155892502110448, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1177/15589250211044817.

L. Sun, G. Wang, C. Zhang, Q. Jin, and Y. Song, "On the rheological properties of multi-walled carbon nano-polyvinylpyrrolidone/silicon-based shear thickening fluid," Nanotechnology Reviews, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1339–1348, Sep. 2021, doi: 10.1515/ntrev-2021-0087.

R. G. Egres and N. J. Wagner, "The rheology and microstructure of acicular precipitated calcium carbonate colloidal suspensions through the shear thickening transition," Journal of Rheology, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 719–746, May 2005, doi: 10.1122/1.1895800.

Q. He, S. Cao, Y. Wang, S. Xuan, P. Wang, and X. Gong, "Impact resistance of shear thickening fluid/Kevlar composite treated with shear-stiffening gel," Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, vol. 106, pp. 82–90, Mar. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.compositesa.2017.12.019.

S. Cao, Q. Chen, Y. Wang, S. Xuan, W. Jiang, and X. Gong, "High strain-rate dynamic mechanical properties of Kevlar fabrics impregnated with shear thickening fluid," Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, vol. 100, pp. 161–169, Sep. 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.compositesa.2017.04.015.

K. Islam, M. A. Chowdhury, I. Hossain, and M. B. A. Shuvho, "Development and Characterization of kevlar-reinforced ceramic composite materials," J. Test. Eval., vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 1631–1650, May 2021, doi: 10.1520/JTE20190873.

R. Wei, B. Dong, W. Zhai, and H. Li, "Stab-resistant performance of the well-engineered soft body armor materials using shear thickening fluid," Molecules, vol. 27, no. 20, p. 6799, Oct. 2022, doi: 10.3390/moleculeS17206799.

Y. Yang and X. Chen, "Determination of materials for hybrid design of 3D soft body armor panels," Appl Compos Mater, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 861–875, Aug. 2018, doi: 10.1007/S00443-018-9716-y.

M. A. Abtew, F. Boussu, and P. Bruniaux, "Dynamic impact protective body armor: A comprehensive appraisal on panel engineering design and its prospective materials," Defence Technology, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 2027–2049, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.dt.2021.03.016.

Z. Xie, W. Chen, Y. Liu, L. Liu, Z. Zhao, and G. Luo, "Design of the ballistic performance of shear thickening fluid (STF) impregnated Kevlar fabric via numerical simulation," Materials &; Design, vol. 226, p. 111599, Feb. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.matdes.2023.111599.

X. Zhang, R. Yan, Q. Zhang, and L. Jia, "The numerical simulation of the mechanical failure behavior of shear thickening fluid/fiber composites: A review," Polym Adv Technol, vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 20–33, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.1002/pat.5512.

S. Cao, H. Pang, C. Zhao, S. Xuan, and X. Gong, "The CNT/PSt-EA/Kevlar composite with excellent ballistic performance," Composites Part B: Engineering, vol. 185, p. 107793, Mar. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.compositesb.2020.107793.

S. Sen, N. B. Jamal M, A. Shaw, and A. Deb, "Numerical investigation of ballistic performance of shear thickening fluid (STF)-Kevlar composite," International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, vol. 164, p. 105174, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2019.105174.

J. C. Farias-Aguilar, M. J. Ramírez-Moreno, D. M. Gonzalez-García, L. Téllez-Jurado, and H. Balmori-Ramírez, "Evaluation of the ballistic protection level of (glass-fiber reinforced polyamide 6)-aramid fabric sandwich composite panels," Journal of Materials Research and Technology, vol. 12, pp. 1606–1614, May 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.03.088.

Y. J. Xu, H. Zhang, and G. Y. Huang, "Ballistic performance of B4C/STF/Twaron composite fabric," Composite Structures, vol. 279, p. 114754, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.compstruct.2021.114754.

S. Gürgen, "Numerical modeling of fabrics treated with multi-phase shear thickening fluids under high velocity impacts," Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 148, p. 106573, Mar. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.tws.2019.106573.

X. Hong, Y. Ma, Z. Lei, R. Bai, H. Bai, X. Li, and J. Zou, "Analysis of interfacial friction properties of multi-phase STF/Kevlar composite fabrics in yarn pullout test," Materials Today Communications, vol. 34, p. 105086, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.105086.

N. Asija, H. Chouhan, S. A. Gebremeskel, R. K. Singh, and N. Bhatnagar, "High strain rate behavior of STF-treated UHMWPE composites," International Journal of Impact Engineering, vol. 110, pp. 359–364, Dec. 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2017.02.019.

A. M. Tarantino, L. Lanzoni, and F. O. Falope, "Numerical and experimental analyses," in The Bending Theory of Fully Nonlinear Beams, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019, pp. 49–70. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-14676-4_2.

R. Bai, W. Li, Z. Lei, Y. Ma, F. Qin, Q. Fang, X. Chen, and Y. Chen, "Experimental study of yarn friction slip and fabric shear deformation in yarn pull-out test," Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, vol. 107, pp. 529–535, Apr. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.compositesa.2018.02.001.

C. Du, F. Zeng, and B. Liu, "The Preparation of multifunctional shear thickening fluid and the application in shock absorber," IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci., vol. 639, no. 1, p. 012006, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/639/1/012006.

A. Khodadadi, G. Liaghat, S. Vahid, A. R. Sabet, and H. Hadavinia, "Ballistic performance of Kevlar fabric impregnated with nanosilica/PEG shear thickening fluid," Composites Part B: Engineering, vol. 162, pp. 643–652, Apr. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.compositesb.2018.12.121.

D. Dimeski, V. Srebrenkoska, and N. Mirceska, "Ballistic impact resistance mechanism of woven fabrics and their composites," International Journal of Engineering Research, vol. 4, no. 12, pp. 107-111, Dec. 2015.

C. Ha-Minh, A. Imad, T. Kanit, and F. Boussu, "Numerical analysis of a ballistic impact on textile fabric," International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, vol. 69, pp. 32–39, Apr. 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2013.01.014.

R. Wei, W. Zhai, X. Wang, W. Zhang, Y. Liang, B. Dong, and F. Li., "Preparation, characterization and properties of shear thickening fluid impregnated fabric composites," IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng., vol. 423, no. 1, p. 012087, Oct. 2018, doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/423/1/012087.

J. C. Farias-Aguilar, M. J. Ramírez-Moreno, D. M. Gonzalez-García, L. Téllez-Jurado, and H. Balmori-Ramírez, "Evaluation of the ballistic protection level of (glass-fiber reinforced polyamide 6)-aramid fabric sandwich composite panels," Journal of Materials Research and Technology, nol. 12, pp. 1606–1614, May 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.03.088.

M. P. Ribeiro, P. H. P. M. da Silveira, F. de Oliveira Braga, and S. N. Monteiro, "Fabric impregnation with shear thickening fluid for ballistic armor polymer composites: An updated overview," Polymers, vol. 14, no. 20, Art. no. 20, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.3390/polym14204357.

M. Bajya, A. Majumdar, and B. S. Butola, "Criticality of inter-yarn friction in high-performance fabrics for the design of soft body armor," Composites Communications, vol. 29, p. 100984, Jan. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.coco.2021.100984.

S. Ingle, C. S. Yerramalli, A. Guha, and S. Mishra, "Effect of material properties on ballistic energy absorption of woven fabrics subjected to different levels of inter-yarn friction," Composite Structures, vol. 266, p. 113824, Jun. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.compstruct.2021.113824.

S. Arora, A. Majumdar, and B. S. Butola, "Soft armor design by angular stacking of shear thickening fluid impregnated high-performance fabrics for quasi-isotropic ballistic response," Composite Structures, vol. 233, p. 111720, Feb. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.compstruct.2019.111720.

J. Lim, B. Lee, C. Lee, and I.-S. Han, "Effect of the weaving density of aramid fabrics on their resistance to ballistic impacts," Engineering, vol. 04, pp. 944–949, Jan. 2012, doi: 10.4236/eng.2012.412A119.

A. Majumdar, A. Laha, D. Bhattacharjee, I. Biswas, and S. Verma, "Soft body armor development by silica particle based shear thickening fluid coated p -Aramid Fabrics," The Journal of The Textile Institute, vol. 110, no. 10, pp. 1515–1518, Oct. 2019, doi: 10.1080/00405000.2019.1602896.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17977/um016v8i12024p054

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST)

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

View My Stats