Defence Technology (Jun 2023)
Parametric study on the ballistic performance of seamed woven fabrics
Abstract
The ballistic perforation response of composite fabrics made by combining plain weaves with seaming technology is reported and compared with conventional unseamed plain fabrics. The effect of the seaming technique on the ballistic resistance of aramid plain fabrics is investigated by varying the seaming process. The ballistic experiment uses 8 mm diameter spherical projectiles to impact different fabric sample targets with velocities of 230 m/s and 400 m/s. The ballistic performance of seamed and unseamed fabrics is characterized by the specific energy absorption (SEA) values of the fabrics. The results show that the seamed fabric has a better energy absorption capacity than the unseamed fabric, e.g., the SEA of sample 5 (seaming lines on every four yarns in a single-ply fabric system) is 135% of sample 1 (plain weave without thread seaming). In the single-layer system, the effect of the seaming technique on the energy absorption of the fabric in significant when considering seaming density, seaming orientation, seaming distance, and seaming material on the plain fabric; In addition, it is found that in multi-layer systems, seamed panels (e.g., sample 7) exhibit better ballistic performance than multi-layer fabrics (e.g., sample 2), and the specific energy absorption of sample 7 is approximately 156% and 200% of sample 6 and sample 2, respectively. Meanwhile, the energy absorption of the fabric decreases with the increase of impact velocity, which is related to the energy absorption mechanism of the soft fabric system at high impact velocities. The yarn pull-out tests shows that the constraint provided by the seaming thread increases the friction between the fabric-forming yarns. However, when the constraint exceeds a certain level, it is detrimental to the energy absorption of the fabric, which may be due to the over-constraint of yarn mobility.
