Abstract
Networked fabrics are a type of three-dimensional multilayer fabrics having predetermined interconnections between layers by combining yarns from two adjacent sublayers into one. This paper reports the research on the influence of structural parameters on the ballistic performance of networked fabrics using finite element analysis in parallel with experiment. The widths of separate and combined sections are found to affect the energy absorption (EA) of regular networked fabrics against high-velocity impact. Separate sections of networked fabrics generally outperform combined sections. The optimal width of the separate section is around 9.5 cm for both dense and loose networked fabrics when impacted at the separate section. The optimal width of combined section decreases from 2.38 cm to 1.15 cm with the decrease of weave density in this area. For the studied structural parameters, highest EAs of dense and loose networked fabrics are around 13.3% and 17.1% higher than those of their counterpart layups of dense and loose plain-woven fabrics, respectively. These findings suggest networked fabrics could be engineered to improve the ballistic performance of flexible fabrics.
Highlights
Fabrics made with high-performance materials such as para-aramid and UHMWPE are widely used for soft body armours
Networked fabrics show different energy absorption when being impacted at different areas because of their different structures
For the studied dense networked fabrics (DNF) and loose networked fabrics (LNF), the energy absorption (EA) when impacted at separate sections is superior to those being hit at combined sections and the joint area
Summary
Fabrics made with high-performance materials such as para-aramid and UHMWPE are widely used for soft body armours. The ballistic performance of a fabric assembly depends on its ability to absorb and convert energy through impact interaction and to dissipate energy quickly to a large area to avoid early local failure. Sun et al [7] reported that gripping and/or jointing making wide fabrics simulate the effects of fabric selvedges as those in narrow fabrics can overcome this disadvantage while keeping the effects of narrow-fabric-with-selvedge Their experimental work showed leno structure and networked structure have higher specific energy absorption than plain-woven fabrics. Apart from the stitching methods, the widths of separate and combined sections and the number of sublayers are several important structural parameters of networked fabrics. This paper reports the influences of structural pattern, the widths of separate and combined sections, on the energy absorption ability of 2-sublayer networked fabrics utilising finite element (FE) method. The final section gives the main conclusions drawn from this work
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