Armouring solutions against high-velocity impact using 2D laminates and 3D warp interlock composites

Abstract

Since the emergence of the first armoured vehicles on battlefields, armour shield was mainly centred on conventional metallic materials, widespread solutions nowadays. For a long time, weight reduction in armoured protection, which represents the largest part of the vehicle's overall weight, has been the key parameter for vehicle manufacturers looking forward to optimizing fuel consumption, thus increasing the payload and offering increased manoeuvrability to vehicles. The solution generally developed is a combination between those metallic plates and materials lighter than the current steel armour. In this context, the hybridization of some well-known ballistic alloys with textile composite materials appears to be a high-potential solution for armour-plated protection. Indeed, used as a backing, textile composite materials present some worthwhile properties such as having a very low density compared with steel and good behaviour in terms of ballistic efficiency. The use of a textile composite backing allows a reduction in the thickness of the metal plate by a few millimetres, which has a huge impact on the total protection weight. The difficulty of this hybridization is, of course, to reduce the total mass of the protection solution as cautiously as possible while ensuring the safety of the vehicle. The textile composite backing is also efficient in containing the pieces of shrapnel, which might break loose from the metal plate during impact. However, observations from today's military theatres of operation reveal that the spectrum of armoured

New Textile Composite Solutions for Armouring of Vehicles

“…By considering the architecture parameters mentioned in our patents [83,84], three types of composite backing were realized, each declined in 3 targets subjected to a FSP impact to determine the speed limit of perforation. Based on these observations, the 3D warp interlock fabric architecture [119] and the thermoplastic resin impregnation show a great influence on the impact energy absorption capacity of the final solutions [120]. Moreover, we have also observed different postimpact deformations of the 3D warp interlock fabric composite target backing subjected to the different speeds of a FSP leading to perforations or nonperforations as shown in Figure 17 [121].…”

A review of fibrous materials for soft body armour applications

“…168 Mechanical and structural properties of the 3D orthogonal woven fabric and its composites can be varied by changing the weave of binder yarns and number of warp layers. [175][176][177][178][179] It is important to note that the stuffer yarns absorbe more energy than the binder yarns, probably because of their low crimp. This, therefore, imposes the need to optimise the stuffer to binder ratio to arrive at best performance.…”

“…168,169,171 Due to this specic bonding arrangement between layers, 3D warp interlock fabrics are reported to show a small damaged zone, good resistance to delamination and multiple hits when subjected to impact. 179 The stiffness and structural stability increase with the increase in number of layers while the crimp of the wavy yarns varies according to the interlacement pattern. Stuffer warp yarns are generally inserted to increase the structural stability and bre volume fraction in composites.…”

“…It has been seen that better impact resistance can be anticipated with balanced or equilibrated structures wherein similar warp and we densities are employed. 179,187 5.8.3 Angle interlock structure (through-thickness). Angle interlock structure can also be termed as 'through-thickness' interlock structure, in which, the warp yarns bind the we yarns by traveling from one surface (top) to other surface (bottom).…”

Influence of fabric architecture and weaving parameter on the thermal conductivities of 3D woven composites

“…5 Over the last few decades, numerous advantages of these 3D woven composites (3DWCs) over the traditional laminated composites had been revealed. 6–11…”