Modern Materials Used in Military Body Armor

Material Science Project

Modern Materials Used in Military Body Armour:
Body Armour Covers, Soft Body Armour and Hard Body Armour

8 April 2013

Margaretha Joubert
Undergraduate
The University of the Witwatersrand

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CONTENTS
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Title Page

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Contents

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List of Figures

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List of Tables

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1 INTRODUCTION

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1.1 Military Body Armour

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2 BODY ARMOUR COVERS

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2.1 CoolMAX®
2.2 Cordura®
2.3 Gore-tex®

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3 SOFT BODY ARMOUR
3.1 Aramid Fibres
3.1.1 Kevlar®
3.1.2 Twaron®

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3.2 High Performance Polyethelene
3.2.1 Dyneema®
3.2.2 Spectra®

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4 HARD BODY ARMOUR
4.1 Boron Carbide
4.2 Silicon Carbide
4.3 Alumina
5 THE FUTURE
5.1 Shear Thickening Fluid
5.2 Dragon Skin®
5.3 M5®
5.4 Spider Silk
5.5 Inorganic Fullerenes
References

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LIST OF FIGURES
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Figure 3.1 : Orientated molecular formula of Aramid Fibres

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Figure 3.2 : Directional molecular formula of Polyethelene Fibres

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Figure 5.1 : Molecular formula of M5® Fibre

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Figure 5.2 : Inorganic Multi-layered Nanotubes

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Figure 5.3 : Inorganic Multi-layered Nanofullerenes

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LIST OF TABLES
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Table 3.1 : The material properties of Aramid fibres

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Table 3.2 : The material properties of High Performance Polyethelene fibres

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Table 4.1 : The material properties of Boron carbide, Silicon carbide and Alumina

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1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Military Body Armour
In this report the various materials used to make modern day military body armour will be discussed. Due to the materials used for body armour having the specific requirements of not only offering protection against large firearms, but also be lightweight in order to assist the military personnel in manoeuvrability and against fatigue, body armour material has evolved significantly from steel to various scientifically advanced materials.
There are three

References: Longhurst (2007), categorizes the classes from HG1/A to RF2, where HG3 up to RF2 is recommended for military usage 2.1 CoolMAX® Invista (2008) claims that CoolMAX® polyester material is made through recycling plastic water bottles, and transforming them to high quality polyester yarn. Duncan and Schindler (2000) explains that the manufacturing of the yarn is what gives Coolmax® its specific physical properties, Dupont® CoolMAX® (1996) states that CoolMAX® also shows evidence of being chemically nonreactive, light-weight, thin and durable, which also only starts decomposing at temperatures of 150˚C - 250˚C for either close body contact material and/or outer material, depending on the specifics of the designed body armour vest, according to Bachner and Pacanowsky (1998). 2.2 Cordura®: Invista Cordura® (2012) claims that Cordura® is a high strength durable nylon fabric, tightly otherwise said as high strength nylon fibre. According to Plastic Products (2012) high tenacity polyester fibres have physical properties such as a high heat deflection at 455 kPA, which increases