Evaluation of magnetorheological fluid augmented fabric as a fragment barrier material

Abstract

The augmentation of high strength fabrics with non-Newtonian fluids has been suggested as a means for improving the ballistic performance of fragment barrier materials widely used in fan blade containment, body armor, orbital debris shielding, and other applications. Magnetorheological (MR) fluids have attracted particular interest, in view of their controllability and proven effectiveness in a variety of damping applications. In a basic research investigation of the MR fluid augmented fabric barrier concept, the authors have fabricated MR fluid saturated Kevlar targets and measured the ballistic performance of these targets both with and without an applied magnetic field. The experimental results show that magnetization of the MR fluid does, when considered in isolation, improve the ability of the augmented fabric to absorb impact energy. However, the benefits of plastic and viscous energy dissipation in the magnetized semi-solid are more than offset by the detrimental effects of yarn lubrication associated with the fluid’s hydrocarbon carrier. An analytical model developed to assist in the interpretation of the experimental data suggests that frictional interaction of the yarns is significantly more effective than magnetorheological augmentation of the fabric in distributing projectile loads away from the point of impact.

Evaluation of magnetostrictive composite coated fabric as a fragment barrier material

“…This section describes preparation of the magnetostrictive composite coated fabric, the assembly used for impact testing in an applied magnetic field, and the ballistic testing procedures. The experimental apparatus and the data classification procedure used in this paper are similar to those used by the authors in a recent study of magnetorheological fluid saturated Kevlar [33].…”

“…The water cooled coil was operated at 70 A using a Sorensen DLM32-95E 3kW programmable DC power supply. Figure 4 shows both a schematic description and a photograph [33] of the coil surrounding the aluminum target holder. Table 4 provides the coil specifications.…”

“…Three sets of impact experiments were conducted: baseline tests on single layer uncoated neat Kevlar targets, tests on single layer magnetostrictive composite coated Kevlar targets with no applied magnetic field and tests on single layer magnetostrictive composite coated Kevlar targets with an applied magnetic field. Note that the baseline test data for neat targets were also used by the authors [33] in evaluating the ballistic performance of magnetorheological fluid saturated Kevlar. Since the baseline targets were single layers of neat Kevlar, as opposed to areal density equivalent neat Kevlar targets, the experiments were designed to determine (1) the maximum ballistic performance benefit which may be realized by application of a magnetostrictive coating to a fabric fragment barrier material and (2) the effect of an applied magnetic field on ballistic performance.…”

A review on multi-physics numerical modelling in different applications of magnetorheological fluids

“…The performances of these applications are found to improve significantly due to the rapid, reversible and controllable characteristics of MR fluids (Wang and Liao, 2011). Examples of these applications are journal bearings (Bompos and Nikolakopoulos, 2011), hydraulic valves (Bullough et al, 2008; Nguyen et al, 2008), micro-pumps (Liang et al, 2018), smart clutches (Ellam et al, 2006; Zhang et al, 2019), rotary MR dampers (Deng et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2019), robotics (Hartzell et al, 2019; Hwang et al, 2019), energy harvesters (Deng and Dapino, 2015; O’Donoghue et al, 2016), rheometers (Allebrandi et al, 2020), human prosthesis (El Wahed and Wang, 2019), engines mounts (Do and Choi, 2015), and hybrid body armours (Son and Fahrenthold, 2012). So far, there have been fewer studies on the employment of MR fluids in these applications compared to research efforts on linear MR dampers (Galindo-Rosales, 2016).…”

Magnetorheological composite materials (MRCMs) for instant and adaptable structural control

“…Application of a magnetic field prompts the suspended magnetic particles to move within the fluid from a relaxed, random distribution and firmly align themselves along the lines of the magnetic flux, which causes an increase in apparent viscosity (Ashour et al 1996). Several potential applications have been identified for these smart fluids, including MR dampers (Böse and Ehrlich 2012) and MR fluid augmented protective fabric (Son and Fahrenthold 2012).…”