The potential of biomimetics design in the development of impact resistant material

Abstract

Ballistic impact resistance is an essential quality for materials to be used in protective shields. In this case, biomimetics design approach was used to improve the existing design of shield by finding solution from nature. Principles were extracted from biological models, such as fish scale, nacre and mantis shrimp, to improve the impact resistance of the shield. These models indicated that a multi-layered material structure shows superior impact resistance properties in case the stiffness of outer layers is much higher than that of inner layers and layer thickness is increased from outer towards inner layers. To verify this statement, materials with carbon fibre reinforced epoxy (CFRP) as the exterior layers and polycarbonate (PC) as the interior ones were designed and numerically analysed. Also pure polycarbonate samples were analysed for comparison purposes. The results showed that biomimetically designed composites had higher ballistic limit velocity than the control specimens for same target thickness.

Keywords

• biomimetic design
• ballistic impact
• carbon fibre composites
• polycarbonate
• protective shields
• ballistic limit velocity