Stab resistance of triaxial woven fabrics for soft body armor

Abstract

Protective body armors, providing protection against stab threats, have long been in a focus of substantial interest. Lightweight fabric for flexible body armors that satisfy the customized fit, comfort, and protection should be considered. Sharp impact experiments were conducted on single and multilayer fabrics of Kevlar29, Vectran, and Polyester triaxial woven fabrics and compared with polyester woven and knitted fabrics. The experimental results evaluate the energy absorption of the different triaxial woven fabrics for stab resistance. An index was developed to evaluate the capability of fibers to absorb the impact energy which indicated that high fiber tenacity and Young’s modulus and low density lead to high rate of punching resistance force. The present work indicates that Vectran triaxial weave fabrics propose to improve the impact performance when used in developing multilayer fabrics for designing lightweight soft body armor with enhanced stab performance adding flexibility and comfort.