Enhancement of the quasi-static stab resistance of Kevlar fabrics impregnated with shear thickening fluid

Stronger and lighter stab resistance materials are always among the relentless pursuits of scientists and engineers. This study presents a featured perspective on investigating the influence of distribution and quantity of shear thickening fluid (STF) on the stab resistance performance and weight of STF/Kevlar (SK) fabrics. A series of tests confirmed that the peak stab resistance force was 515.48 N (±18.62) because of the uniform distribution of SiO2 nanoparticles in Kevlar fabrics, behaving 2.07 fold than that of the neat Kevlar (NK) fabrics, and the weight gain rate was only 17.1% (±0.56) under the optimal technology condition, almost displaying the theoretical values. Moreover, the added STF had a negligible influence on flexibility of NK fabric. The pull-out test demonstrated that the high inter-yarn friction of SK fabric could strengthen the resistance relative motion of yarns so that more surrounding yarns participated in the impact energy dissipation and maximized the role of high-performance fabric Kevlar.