liquid body armor
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Hi all,
Interesting topic.. happy reading.
Army Scientists, Engineers develop Liquid Body Armor
By Tonya Johnson
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- Liquid armor for Kevlar vests is one of the newest technologies being developed at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to save Soldiers' lives.
This type of body armor is light and flexible, which allows soldiers to be more mobile and won't hinder an individual from running or aiming his or her weapon.
The key component of liquid armor is a shear thickening fluid. STF is composed of hard particles suspended in a liquid. The liquid, polyethylene glycol, is non-toxic, and can withstand a wide range of temperatures. Hard, nano-particles of silica are the other components of STF. This combination of flowable and hard components results in a material with unusual properties.
"During normal handling, the STF is very deformable and flows like a liquid. However, once a bullet or frag hits the vest, it transitions to a rigid material, which prevents the projectile from penetrating the Soldier's body," said Dr. Eric Wetzel, a mechanical engineer from the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate who heads the project team.
To make liquid armor, STF is soaked into all layers of the Kevlar vest. The Kevlar fabric holds the STF in place, and also helps to stop the bullet. The saturated fabric can be soaked, draped, and sewn just like any other fabric.
Wetzel and his team have been working on this technology with Dr. Norman J. Wagner and his students from the University of Delaware for three years.
"The goal of the technology is to create a new material that is low cost and lightweight which offers equivalent or superior ballistic properties as compared to current Kevlar fabric, but has more flexibility and less thickness," said Wetzel. "This technology has a lot of potential."
Liquid armor is still undergoing laboratory tests, but Wetzel is enthusiastic about other applications that the technology might be applied to.
"The sky's the limit," said Wetzel. "We would first like to put this material in a soldier's sleeves and pants, areas that aren't protected by ballistic vests but need to remain flexible. We could also use this material for bomb blankets, to cover suspicious packages or unexploded ordnance. Liquid armor could even be applied to jump boots, so that they would stiffen during impact to support Soldiers' ankles."
In addition to saving Soldiers' lives, Wetzel said liquid armor in Kevlar vests could help those who work in law enforcement.
"Prison guards and police officers could also benefit from this technology," said Wetzel. "Liquid armor is much more stab resistant than conventional body armor. This capability is especially important for prison guards, who are most often attacked with handmade sharp weapons."
For their work on liquid armor, Wetzel and his team were awarded the 2002 Paul A. Siple Award, the Army's highest award for scientific achievement, at the Army Science Conference. -
Cool.
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The incompressible qualities of real fluids make liquid armour a possibility.
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This is an interesting development...
The liquid still has to "give" a bit or it will transfer the kinetic energy of the round to the wearer, which means a nasty bruise.
I came across another article that argued for the use of Magnetic Fields to activate the Armour. Supposedly, the Armour has nano-sized metals which only harden and "solidify" as a mass when a Magnetic Field is activated.
Still, i wonder how the armour will perform against contact shots or multiple hits across a small area... -
other applications like condoms.... normally flexible then harden when needed
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Googled on Shear Thickening Fluids and found the research paper that was done on the "Liquid Body Armor"...
First things first, it isn't the new wave... All it does is to reduce the thickness of your average Kevlar Vest and its only good for Handgun level and Fragmentation kind of threats. It will shatter with Rifle rounds.
The Paper suggested that it could be used for more sensitive areas like the Neck area where the wearer would desire comfort and ease of motion but protection.
From what i know, any neck protection is diificult to engineer, even if it does stop a round, your neck will still snap due to the kinetic energy from the round. Thus, a non-penetrative wound that kills...
Let's hope that this takes that into consideration. -
read about that...it will work againest heat but you're good old fashion ww2 ammo will break through it by shear force.As for small shots across a small area it shld still work......after all it's main purpose is to set up a field away from the actual armour and make the round expolde prematurely.And when the heat round does get through the nana metals are suppose to harden infront of the hot gases or something like that....not too sure read that awhile back.Originally posted by Si Geena:This is an interesting development...
The liquid still has to "give" a bit or it will transfer the kinetic energy of the round to the wearer, which means a nasty bruise.
I came across another article that argued for the use of Magnetic Fields to activate the Armour. Supposedly, the Armour has nano-sized metals which only harden and "solidify" as a mass when a Magnetic Field is activated.
Still, i wonder how the armour will perform against contact shots or multiple hits across a small area... -
hmm... i was thinking of it being a Personnel Body Armour rather than for AFVs... Most threats we are talking about belong to the Kinetic types, not HEAT ones...Originally posted by |-|05|:read about that...it will work againest heat but you're good old fashion ww2 ammo will break through it by shear force.As for small shots across a small area it shld still work......after all it's main purpose is to set up a field away from the actual armour and make the round expolde prematurely.And when the heat round does get through the nana metals are suppose to harden infront of the hot gases or something like that....not too sure read that awhile back.
The Magnetic Field was supposed to activate the Nano-metals, not act like some Force-field...
Of course, we could be talking about dis-similar things and got it all wrong. Can't find the link to the article... sorry. -
hmm... i was wondering if this can be used in other applications... like condoms? would be really impenetratable
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Lol most prob we talking about different things....ill try to find the article or something and link it here...Originally posted by Si Geena:hmm... i was thinking of it being a Personnel Body Armour rather than for AFVs... Most threats we are talking about belong to the Kinetic types, not HEAT ones...
The Magnetic Field was supposed to activate the Nano-metals, not act like some Force-field...
Of course, we could be talking about dis-similar things and got it all wrong. Can't find the link to the article... sorry. -
i'm not sure but i think it's this i'm talking about but it seems different....oh well http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/08/19/boffins_invent_grenade_vaporising_electric/
FOUND IT!!!
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,539143,00.html
Hehe but seems i remembered wrongly about the details..but oh well it was written in 2001! -
This was the aricle i came across... It was regarding Personnel Body Armour, not the Platform kind...
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/US/cybershake_040205.html
Its not exactly nano... just uses the principal of magnetism to activate the Ballistic Qualities.