Investigation of Shear Thickening Liquid Protection Fibrous Material

The stab resistance performance of newly developed fabric composites composed of hexagonal paper honeycombs, filled with shear thickening fluid (STF), and woven Kevlar® fabric or UHMPE was investigated in this study. The STF was prepared by dispersing submicron SiO2 particles into polyethylene glycol (PEG). Our results indicate that the STF-Kevlar composite possessed lower penetration depth than that of neat Kevlar. In other words, the STF-Kevlar composite can attain the same energy level in stab-resistance test with fewer layers of Kevlar fabrics than that of the neat Kevlar fabrics. It also indicates that STF can be used for the fabrication of flexible body armors and can provide improved protection against stab threats. We found that the stab resistance of the STF-Kevlar composite increases with the increase of SiO2 concentration in STF. Moreover, the silica particles functionalized with silane coupling agent can further improve the stab resistance.

Authors:

• Po-Yun Chen
• Jui-Liang Yen
• Chang-Ping Chang
• Wen-Hua Hu
• Yu-Liang Chen
• Yih-Ming Liu
• Chin-Yi Chou
• Ming-Der Ger

Keywords:

• shear thickening fluid
• SiO2
• Kevlar
• stab

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