Polymer and Organic Materials Commons^™

Characterization Of Mechanical Properties Displayed In Body Armor Ballistic Fibers, Dawei Li, Matthew Hudspeth, Weinong Wayne Chen

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The current body armor systems manufactured using ballistic fibers are not performing as theoretical results predict and are causing injuries. The actual maximum projectile penetration speed that the body armor can endure is significantly lower than the theoretical maximum speed, thus causing a costly build-test relationship that is not aided with modeling design efforts. The main aim of this research is to determine the maximum penetration speeds for ballistic yarns and fabrics. Secondary aim is to examine the common assumption that during transverse impact, single fiber is under pure tension and shear stress is negligible. To examine aforementioned assumption, fibers …