Investigation of the impact effects of thermoplastic polyurethane reinforced with multi-walled carbon nanotube for soldier boot under the blast load

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to reduce the damage of the soldier boots, which subject the blast load. The boot sole was reinforced to perform the study. Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) materials were used for this reinforcement. In addition, TPU 508 material was used as energy absorber, and Carbon-Kevlar fiber composite was utilized to decrease the impact effect of blast load. Acceleration test system was used to simulate the blast load. Three different boots were used in the study (ordinary boot, semi-damped boot, and fully damped boot). Twin-screw extruder was used to blend melted material to prepare polyurethane MWCNT with weight fraction from 1% to 5%. In addition, mechanical properties of these materials were obtained by tensile tests. The best mechanical properties were obtained with the weight fraction of 1% MWCNT. Acceleration test was applied to measure the energy damping performance of new designed boot sole. As a result of the study, the best reduction on the blast load was obtained nearly 12% with the fully damped soldier boot.

Reinforcing MWCNTs to enhance viscoelastic properties of polyurethane nanocomposites by using nano DMA techniques

“…Solvent mixing technique 23–34 was used for the synthesis of MWCNTs-reinforced PU composite material. Dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvent was used to dissolve PU and to disperse MWCNTs.…”

“…Mariappan and Jaisankar 22 performed thermal studies on SWCNTs-reinforced TPU composite material and reported improved melting and degradation temperature of the composite material. Doğru and Güzelbey 23 also prepared MWCNTs-reinforced TPU composite by varying the composition of MWCNTs and reported improved mechanical properties at a weight fraction of 1% MWCNTs.…”

Investigation of Ballistic Impact Response of Aluminum Alloys Hybridized with Kevlar/Epoxy Composites

“…So, there are many investigations that are showing this fact. Carbon/Epoxy [18][19][20][21][22][23][24], Glass/Epoxy-polyester [25][26][27][28], Kevlar/Epoxy-Vinylester [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] polymer composites are mainly studied ones. Among the fibers of the polymer matrix composites, Kevlar is an important material since this material type have high impact load absorbing capacities and have been an important researched fiber type.…”