Effects of Weave Type on the Ballistic Performance of Fabrics

Impact experiments conducted on custom manufactured fabrics provide a systematic study of the effects of weave type on ballistic performance for aramid, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene, and hybrid aramid ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene fabrics. For the combination of projectile, yarn count, and yarn denier considered, the ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene and hybrid fabrics show a strong and similar dependence of ballistic performance on weave type. The measured performance of the aramid fabrics was unexpectedly insensitive to weave type, although variations in target ballistic performance were the highest in the aramid fabric experiments. The experimental approach developed in this research is well suited for use in measuring the influence of additional parameters, such as projectile type, on the relative ballistic performance of various two-dimensional weaves.