High Frictional Coated Multi-Layer Ballistic Fabrics for High Velocity and Hypervelocity Impact Protection

Abstract

Increasing the inter-fiber friction of ballistic fabrics is crucial for improving their impact shielding performance. Shear thickening fluid (STF) impregnation is commonly used to improve inter-fiber friction, but it has several fundamental shortcomings. Polymer coating, with its superior properties, can be an ideal material for increasing the friction coefficient of fabrics. Our study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the coating process in enhancing the energy absorption mechanism within and among the fabric layers. Additionally, we investigated the capability of a multi-layer coated fabric system for hypervelocity impact shielding and spall liners. Our findings demonstrated the effectiveness of the coating process in improving the ballistic limit of the fabric system. Coated fabrics showed a 19.6% and 23.4% increase in specific energy absorption compared to pristine fabrics. We conducted hypervelocity impact experiments with impact velocities between 1.9 km/s to 2.1 km/s using a triple bumper system. The front bumper generated a debris cloud, the back bumper comprised the coated fabrics, and the third bumper acted as a witness plate. We compared the area of impact on the witness plate and the penetration area to estimate the efficiency of the coated fabrics. Our results showed that the coated fabrics had a higher area of impact with lower intensity of damage and a decrease in the penetration area compared to pristine fabrics with similar areal densities, indicating excellent impact shielding performance.