Investigation of composite fabric impregnated with non-Newtonian fluid for protective textiles

Commercial high-performance fibre materials for body armour have very low surface friction and this has become an issue in the effectiveness of ballistic impact energy absorption. Also, the incidence of sports injuries in high contact sports is high. The severity of injuries of police and sportsman can be reduced by wearing enhanced protective clothing that have the ability to absorb the shocks. In this study, a type of non-Newtonian fluid has been developed. It became hardened upon a shock impact which was observed through a drop-on-weight test. The non-Newtonian fluid was successfully applied on to a traditional plain weave body armour fabric made of Twaron®. The treated fabric was studied by scanning electron microscopy and a yarn pulling-out test. It shows that the force to pull out a yarn from the non-Newtonian fluid treated fabric is four times higher than that of the untreated one. The flexibility of the non-Newtonian polymer treated fabric remains unchanged. The polymer can be used for applications where impact protection can be a highly desirable property.