Mouldability and its Recovery Properties of 2D Plain Woven P-aramid Fabric for Soft Body Armour Applications

Abstract

Mouldability, along with other mechanical properties, is a very crucial material parameter in various technical textile applications, from composites to soft body armour products. Moreover, the mouldability and recovery behaviours of the material will be affected by various internal and external paramters before, during and after the forming process. The current research particularly tried to study the effects of blank-holder pressure (BHP) and the number of layers not only on the moulding characterstics but also on the recovery behaviour of plain woven p-aramid fabrics made from a high-performance yarn with a linear density of 930 dTex. Samples with various numbers of layers were arranged in the same orientation for the moulding process. The moulding approach utilised a specific moulding device in a low-speed forming process and a predefined semi-hemispherically shaped punch for all specimens.Various important dry textile material moulding characteristics and, most importantly, the moulding recovery properties, such as warp and weft direction drawing-in recovery, center high-point recovery, shear angle recovery etc. were investigated.