An experimental investigation into structure and properties of 3D-woven aramid and PBO fabrics

Three-dimensional (3D) fabrics are the focus of recent developments due to their versatile physical, structural attributes, and application scopes. These fabrics can be manufactured in various architectures which offer a great deal of opportunity to modify the weight, physical and mechanical properties, and cost of the various products. The potential usage of 3D woven fabrics in the ballistic protection applications was the main motivating factor of this research work. Thus, interest has been focused to investigate the structure and properties of 3D woven orthogonal fabrics with aramid fiber and PBO fiber in comparison with 2D fabrics. The investigation of ballistic properties of these fabrics showed that 3D woven fabrics are superior in terms of breaking load and energy absorption as compared to those of 2D woven fabrics. The specific ultimate tensile strength of 3D woven fabric was observed to be lower than 2D fabrics, which may be due to less number of load bearing yarns in the loading direction. The crimp percentages of the load bearing tows in 3D fabric are very less than that of 2D fabrics. Owing to the higher values of work at peak and load at peak, in knife penetration test, it is revealed that 3D fabrics offer better protection than 2D fabrics.