Experimental Study of the Characterization of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Fiber Plastic

Abstract

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber reinforced plastic (UFRP) is an integral part of hard body armor. The intensive study on the material characterization of UFRP can help to understanding the bulletproof mechanism and behind-armor blunt trauma (BABT) well, and thus improve the performance of body armor. The research presented in this paper represents an effort to characterize the properties of UFRP under quasi-static and ballistic loading. The tensile behavior along the fiber direction and through thickness compressive behavior were obtained using an universal material testing machine. Experiments show that the tensile strength and compressive strength of UFRP are approximately 500MPa and 650MPa, respectively. The through thickness shear strength of UFRP was also obtained according to the punch-shear testing, and a set of special clamp was used to clamp the samples. The composite has been found to have a low shear strength. The UFRP was impacted by a 4.8mm diameter spherical fragment with velocity 694m/s~920m/s, to study the ballistic performance. And the height and radius of the deformed conical region on the back face of UFRP were captured using high-speed photography technique. Results show the maximum transient height of the cone is about 3 to 4 times greater than the final height of the cone, and the radius of the cone reaches to 59±7.4mm. The ballistic limit of the 11mm thick UFRP is approximately 800m/s.