Improved Toughness Ballistic Protective Fiber Through Molecular Modeling

Current body armor polymer fibers are limited in ballistic performance by their tendency to lose axial tensile strength under the combined loading of lateral compression, lateral shear and axial tension that occurs during impact. This requires the use of heavier, bulkier, costlier body armor. The Foster-Miller team, which includes reknowned rigid-rod polymer and molecular modeling consultants, will apply computer modeling for the first time and completely redesign the ballistic fiber to address its deficiencies. We will apply a micro-mechanical model to design rigid-rod and other specialized polymers for fibers that exhibit high tensile strength (>30 gpd), high modulus (>500 gpd), higher elongation (>5 percent) and strong intermolecular interaction. Such fibers will show improved ballistic performance because of higher toughness, owing to their special polymers design. In Phase I, we will identify novel polymer designs that demonstrate the potential for achieving greater than 60 percent improvement in ballistic fiber V50 performance against 17 grain FSP's in fabric form. In Phase II, we will refine and apply the technology to prepare fibers from the best polymers for complete evaluation. The principal investigator is an expert in ordered polymer design and synthesis, innovative fiber processing, advanced composites and ballistic protection.