Anti-impact behavior of a novel soft body armor based on shear thickening gel (STG) impregnated Kevlar fabrics

A novel Kevlar/STG (Kevlar fabrics immersed with shear thickening gel) fabrics composite with high anti-impact performance was fabricated. By utilizing a unique multi-sensor force testing system, both low- and high-velocity impact experiments were conducted to investigate the anti-impact performance of Kevlar/STG fabrics. In low-velocity testing, the attenuation of the impact center force for Kevlar/STG was 64.1%, which was much larger than the Kevlar (27.0%). Under high-velocity loading, the impact force of Kevlar/STG attenuated from 805 N to 223 N with the increase of layers from 5-layers to 20-layers, while they reduced from 1125 N to 460 N for Kevlar fabrics. Meanwhile, the failure mode was analyzed and it was found that the high anti-impact performance was originated from the shear thickening effect and enhanced friction. In consideration of the good flexibility and excellent safe guarding property, the Kevlar/STG showed promising perspective in body armor.