Soft Body Armor: An Overview of Materials, Manufacturing, Testing, and Ballistic Impact Dynamics

Abstract

This report documents the development of today's soft body armors including their designs, materials, manufacturing methods, National Institute of Justice ballistic and North Atlantic Treaty Organization fragment threat categories, and qualification testing requirements. Material characteristics are discussed for each of the multiple material dimensional scales, which include the molecular, fiber, yarn, and fabric scales. Ballistic impact effects on single fibers and both single and multilayered woven fabrics are presented as well as numerical models used to depict stress and transverse wave propagations, projectile blunting, and fabric penetration.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA549097

Entities

People

  • Paul V. Cavallaro

Organizations

  • Naval Undersea Warfare Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Body Armor
  • Dacron
  • Fabrics
  • Fiber Spinning
  • Fibers
  • Manufacturing
  • Materials
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Mechanics
  • Nato
  • Polymer Chemistry
  • Projectiles
  • Protective Clothing
  • Rigid Rod Polymers
  • Textiles
  • Transverse Waves

Readers

  • Materials Science
  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation and International Security