Research - Role of Materials and Architecture in Fabrics

Gaurav Nilakantan

Research—

Role of Materials / Architecture in the Ballistic Impact Performance of Fabrics

The role of material and architecture on the ballistic impact performance of flexible 2d and 3d fabrics is studied. 3d fabric have certain advantages over 2d fabrics since the warp and fill tows have no crimp leading to improved in-plane tensile properties and lesser weaving damages. However 2d woven fabrics have better structural integrity since the warp and fill yarns are woven together. Through thickness tows or z-tows are used to hold the multiple layers of warp and fill tows of the 3d fabric together. The impact response of multiple layers of plain weave fabrics both with and without through thickness stitching are compared against 3d fabrics. The effect of the z-tows on the 3d fabric are studied by varying the undulations of the z-tows and the number of layers that they interlace. Interlayer interactions are observed to play a key role in the energy dissipations and methods to increase them are studied. Material properties of the tows, particularly the longitudinal tensile modulus, density, and tensile strength are parametrically varied. Insight gained from the study is highly beneficial to improving the ballistic impact response of these fabrics.

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