Fabric armour erosion using a buried charge ejecta analog

Abstract

The threat posed by buried explosive charges and their explosive dispersal of environmental debris is associated with a variety of debilitating injuries. The dispersion profile of such threats includes particulate in a broad range of particle length scales, which are more destructive to ballistic fabrics than larger particles alone. Smaller particles are initially dispersed at higher speeds, degrading armour fabrics prior to the arrival of the larger penetrating particulate. In the present work, we present a low-cost industrial abrasion test method to investigate the abrasive wear in neat and polymer-coated ballistic fabrics to determine the level of degradation of the fabrics under the abrasive load. These fabrics were subjected to the impingement of an abrasive jet with average particle velocity of 187 ± 20 m/s. The results showed evidence of significant degradation and failure within the ballistic fabrics, that would certainly influence their subsequent ballistic performance. The addition of polymer coatings was able to reduce the abrasive degradation of the fabrics. The failure modes of the polymer composites are similarly described. This methodology shows promise as a means of armour material screening for this particular threat.