Preliminary Investigation on the Ballistic Limit of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Unidirectional Coated Fabric System.

This paper reports an investigation on the ballistic impact performance of high strength unidirectional (UD) fabrics UHMWPE coated with natural rubber latex (NRL). The effects of adding calcium carbonate in the NRL on the ballistic impact were also studied. Several NRL coated UD fabrics were assembled together with neat UD fabrics in a 12-ply fabric system. The ballistic limit and energy absorption of the fabric systems were determined. Results of the ballistic limit test showed that the NRL coated UD fabrics gave some positive effects in enhancing the ballistic impact performance of the fabric systems in comparison with all-neat fabric systems. Several mechanisms of energy absorption were observed on the fabric systems which include burn marks, fibre stretching, fibre pull-out, shearing, delamination of fabric plies for completely penetrated fabric systems and a punched-out effect on the back ply of partially penetrated fabric systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]