Liquid Armor
Encyclopedia
Liquid Armor is a material under research by United States Army Research Laboratory (ARL). It is liquid under low or normal pressure and solid under high pressure. This liquid is made with polyethylene glycol
and the solid part is made of nano-particles of silica. This liquid is soaked into all the layers of a Kevlar vest.
BAE Systems has also been researching a similar Kevlar vest with a fluid between layers of the polymer, and this attracted a fair amount of press in August 2010. BAE took over the US research company 'Armour Holdings' who were doing research based on suspensions of silica particles.
Fluids used for this purpose are non-Newtonian
, and are usually referred to as shear thickening fluids (or STF), which are the same as dilatants.
Polyethylene glycol
Polyethylene glycol is a polyether compound with many applications from industrial manufacturing to medicine. It has also been known as polyethylene oxide or polyoxyethylene , depending on its molecular weight, and under the tradename Carbowax.-Available forms:PEG, PEO, or POE refers to an...
and the solid part is made of nano-particles of silica. This liquid is soaked into all the layers of a Kevlar vest.
BAE Systems has also been researching a similar Kevlar vest with a fluid between layers of the polymer, and this attracted a fair amount of press in August 2010. BAE took over the US research company 'Armour Holdings' who were doing research based on suspensions of silica particles.
Fluids used for this purpose are non-Newtonian
Non-Newtonian fluid
A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid whose flow properties differ in any way from those of Newtonian fluids. Most commonly the viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids is not independent of shear rate or shear rate history...
, and are usually referred to as shear thickening fluids (or STF), which are the same as dilatants.