Molecular Design of Novel Poly(urethane-urea) Hybrids as Helmet Pads for Ballistic and Blast Trauma Mitigation

Abstract

Polyurethane (PU) and poly(urethane urea) (PUU) based foams are currently being used as helmet pad materials. The U.S. Army still has a critical need for more efficient foam pad materials and designs that will provide warfighters with improved survivability against blast-induced traumatic brain injuries. Recent work has shown that tailoring the microphase-separated morphology is critical in controlling the high strain-rate mechanical deformation of bulk PU and PUU elastomers. In this work we focused on molecular influence and have successfully synthesized select model PU and PUU elastomers incorporating triptycene moieties. Adding triptycene-1,4 hydroquinone resulted in a 9C increase in the soft segment glass transition temperature compared to hydroquinone-containing PU. The 1,4-diaminotriptycene modified PUUs revealed improved tensile modulus and flow stress, which correlated well with the rubbery plateau modulus data determined from dynamic mechanical analysis and with the interdomain-correlation data from the small-angle X-ray scattering measurements.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA496122

Entities

People

  • Alex J. Hsieh
  • Joshua A. Orlicki
  • Rick L. Beyer

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Brain Injuries
  • Dermatologic Agents
  • Elastomers
  • Films
  • Glass
  • Glass Transition Temperature
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Polymers
  • Scattering
  • Stresses
  • Tensile Modulus
  • Tensile Properties
  • Transition Temperature
  • X Ray Scattering
  • X Rays

Readers

  • Mechanical Engineering/Mechanics of Materials.
  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Polymer Science and Technology