An exposition of shear thickening fluid treated double and 3D woven fabrics with a new integrity factor for enhanced impact resistance

Abstract

Impact behaviour of a woven fabric depends on its material composition, interlacement pattern (weave) and sett. In this work, 2D and 3D woven fabrics were prepared and evaluated for their impact resistance in neat and shear thickening fluid (STF) treated conditions. 2D structures included homogeneous ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fabric, hybrid fabric of p-aramid and UHMWPE, and double fabric with p-aramid as face and UHMWPE as back layer. 3D woven fabrics of different variants were composed of UHMWPE as warp and p-aramid as weft. A new parameter, named integrity factor, was introduced to quantify the firmness of 3D woven fabrics . The results highlighted the superior impact resistance of neat double fabric, a structure that has not been explored before, and STF treated hybrid 2D fabric. Among the 3D fabrics, impact energy absorption was the highest in through-thickness orthogonal (0.0935 J m2 g−1; integrity factor of 1.760), followed by layer by layer orthogonal (0.0685 J m2 g−1; integrity factor of 1.493) and the least of all, in through-thickness angle interlock fabric (0.0373 J m2 g−1; integrity factor of 1.026). STF treatment improved the impact resistance in all cases of 2D, double and 3D fabrics, with increment ranging from 38 to 153%. Outcome of this research will be helpful in designing double and 3D woven fabrics for impact resistance applications.