Body armour textiles

Chen X, Zhu F, Wells G. An analytical model for ballistic impact on textile based body armour. Compos B Eng 2013 45 1508-14. 

Cunniff PM, Ting J. Decoupled response of textile body armour. In Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Ballistics. San Antonio, Texas, USA 1999. p. 814—21. Abiru S, Lizuka K. Bulletproof fabric and process for its production. US Patent, Toyo Boseki Kabushiki Kaisha US 1999. 

Examples of stab resistant body armour are often quite different in constractional character. For example, some comprise a matrix of overlapping metal or composite plates located between fabric layers (based on para-aramid or UHMW polyethylene), others are based on more flexible aramid woven textiles which have been coated with silicon carbide particles to blunt the knife point and others incorporate fine tungsten wire within a knitted fabric matrix. Copying the ancient chain mail concept, similar fine mail constructed from stainless steel or titanium wire may be included as a layer. Obviously the overall weight and thickness of the resulting armour is of crucial importance for the comfort of the wearer but this will be determined largely by the magnitude of the threat. 

Examples of textile-based stab resistant body armour include the following ... 

Textile body armour has been used since the middle of the twentieth century, but it can trace its roots back to silk fabric, leather and other mrrltilayer systems of antiquity. The response of textile armoirr to balhstic impact is complex and not fully understood. Numerous studies of fabric systems have been published, and understanding has slowly developed based on single fibre tests, meso material models and, recently, relatively complete numerical models of multilayer systems (Tabiei and Nilakantan, 2008). Analytical and empirical models have been developed (Cuniff, 1999 Roylance, 1977) which seek to indicate the key fibre and fabric properties required in armour. However, our understanding of the more subtle effects is still somewhat incomplete, with inter-yam and inter-layer interactions remaining to be fully characterised and with models which are only validated across relatively narrow sets of conditions and materials. 

Boussu R, Maillet J. (2010) Innovative 3D textile structure for soft body armour protection , NATO Advanced Study Institute Defence Related Intelligent Textiles and Clothing for Ballistic and NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) Protection , Split, Croatia, 6-16 April 2010. 

Key words balhstic fabric, body armour, bullet resistant, ceramic armour, stab resistant, textile armour. 

The types of textile materials used in protective clothing are determined by the performance requirements of the clothing, which come from the analysis of the specific human-clothing-environment system. In this chapter, the application of high performance textile materials in the firefighters clothing, body armour and chemical protective clothing are reviewed, and the effects of the properties of those new materials on the overall performance of those PPE products will be briefly reviewed. 

Different types of protective clothing need to withstand attack from specific environmental hazards and thus require the constituent textile materials to have high performance in specific properties. For example, a body armour system requires the textile materials used to have superior mechanical properties firefighters clothing requires its component materials to have exceptional fire resistance properties and chemical protective clothing requires the materials to be resistant to the attacks of chemical agents. 

In the following sections, performance textiles used in three types of protective clothing - body armour systems, firelighter s clothing and chemical protective clothing to address mechanical, heat and chemical hazards, respectively - are discussed. 

Many of the innovations in textile applications in the past 50 years have started with military applications - from fibreglass structures for radomes, to fragment and bullet resistant body armour, to chemical agent protective clothing, to fibre-reinforced composites - indeed, many of our current defence systems and advanced aircraft would not be possible without these materials. So perhaps it is not surprising that the initial applications for smart textiles have also come either directly from military R D or from spin-offs. Some of... 

The overall thickness of fabrics for ballistic protection must be high to achieve the desired level of performance. In turn, the increased bulk and thickness of body armour reduces the level of thermal comfort. However, the performance of these textiles for ballistic protection is still the essential requirement. 

---