Kevlar KM2

Last updated

Kevlar KM2 is a synthetic para-aramid fibre produced by DuPont. The fiber is an evolution of the original Kevlar fibre. The following quotes summarise Kevlar KM2's properties.

"DuPont created Kevlar KM2 to achieve the performance goals defined by casualty reduction testing for the Department of Defense. Today it is used extensively for fragmentation protection in the U.S. military. Helmets and vests made with Kevlar KM2 provide enhanced bullet and fragmentation resistance while remaining comfortable and breathable in the most inhospitable climates.

Excellent thermal stability at temperature extremes, water repellency, chemical stability and resistance to petroleum products have made Kevlar KM2 an indispensable asset to the military personnel who use it every day." [1]

"Kevlar KM2 fiber is a transversely isotropic material. Its tensile stress–strain response in the axial direction is linear and elastic until failure. However, the overall deformation in the transverse directions is nonlinear and nonelastic, although it can be treated linearly and elastically in infinitesimal strain range. For a linear, elastic, and transversely isotropic material, five material constants are needed to describe its stress–strain response." [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevlar</span> Heat-resistant and strong aromatic polyamide fiber

Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires. It is typically spun into ropes or fabric sheets that can be used as such, or as an ingredient in composite material components.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Composite material</span> Material made from a combination of three or more unlike substances

A composite material is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a material with properties unlike the individual elements. Within the finished structure, the individual elements remain separate and distinct, distinguishing composites from mixtures and solid solutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young's modulus</span> Mechanical property that measures stiffness of a solid material

Young's modulus, the Young modulus, or the modulus of elasticity in tension or compression, is a mechanical property that measures the tensile or compressive stiffness of a solid material when the force is applied lengthwise. It quantifies the relationship between tensile/compressive stress and axial strain in the linear elastic region of a material and is determined using the formula:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultimate tensile strength</span> Maximum stress withstood by stretched material before breaking

Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), often shortened to tensile strength (TS), ultimate strength, or within equations, is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking. In brittle materials the ultimate tensile strength is close to the yield point, whereas in ductile materials the ultimate tensile strength can be higher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poisson's ratio</span> Measure of material deformation perpendicular to loading

In materials science and solid mechanics, Poisson's ratio (nu) is a measure of the Poisson effect, the deformation of a material in directions perpendicular to the specific direction of loading. The value of Poisson's ratio is the negative of the ratio of transverse strain to axial strain. For small values of these changes, is the amount of transversal elongation divided by the amount of axial compression. Most materials have Poisson's ratio values ranging between 0.0 and 0.5. For soft materials, such as rubber, where the bulk modulus is much higher than the shear modulus, Poisson's ratio is near 0.5. For open-cell polymer foams, Poisson's ratio is near zero, since the cells tend to collapse in compression. Many typical solids have Poisson's ratios in the range of 0.2–0.3. The ratio is named after the French mathematician and physicist Siméon Poisson.

In physics and materials science, elasticity is the ability of a body to resist a distorting influence and to return to its original size and shape when that influence or force is removed. Solid objects will deform when adequate loads are applied to them; if the material is elastic, the object will return to its initial shape and size after removal. This is in contrast to plasticity, in which the object fails to do so and instead remains in its deformed state.

Aramid fibers, short for aromatic polyamide, are a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers. They are used in aerospace and military applications, for ballistic-rated body armor fabric and ballistic composites, in marine cordage, marine hull reinforcement, and as an asbestos substitute.

The field of strength of materials, also called mechanics of materials, typically refers to various methods of calculating the stresses and strains in structural members, such as beams, columns, and shafts. The methods employed to predict the response of a structure under loading and its susceptibility to various failure modes takes into account the properties of the materials such as its yield strength, ultimate strength, Young's modulus, and Poisson's ratio. In addition, the mechanical element's macroscopic properties such as its length, width, thickness, boundary constraints and abrupt changes in geometry such as holes are considered.

An elastic modulus is the unit of measurement of an object's or substance's resistance to being deformed elastically when a stress is applied to it. The elastic modulus of an object is defined as the slope of its stress–strain curve in the elastic deformation region: A stiffer material will have a higher elastic modulus. An elastic modulus has the form:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyacrylonitrile</span> Chemical compound

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN), also known as polyvinyl cyanide and Creslan 61, is a synthetic, semicrystalline organic polymer resin, with the linear formula (C3H3N)n. Though it is thermoplastic, it does not melt under normal conditions. It degrades before melting. It melts above 300 °C if the heating rates are 50 degrees per minute or above. Almost all PAN resins are copolymers made from mixtures of monomers with acrylonitrile as the main monomer. It is a versatile polymer used to produce large variety of products including ultra filtration membranes, hollow fibers for reverse osmosis, fibers for textiles, and oxidized PAN fibers. PAN fibers are the chemical precursor of very high-quality carbon fiber. PAN is first thermally oxidized in air at 230 °C to form an oxidized PAN fiber and then carbonized above 1000 °C in inert atmosphere to make carbon fibers found in a variety of both high-tech and common daily applications such as civil and military aircraft primary and secondary structures, missiles, solid propellant rocket motors, pressure vessels, fishing rods, tennis rackets and bicycle frames. It is a component repeat unit in several important copolymers, such as styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic.

Twaron is a para-aramid. It is a heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibre developed in the early 1970s by the Dutch company Akzo Nobel's division Enka BV, later Akzo Industrial Fibers. The research name of the para-aramid fibre was originally Fiber X, but it was soon called Arenka. Although the Dutch para-aramid fiber was developed only a little later than DuPont's Kevlar, the introduction of Twaron as a commercial product came much later than Kevlar due to financial problems at the AKZO company in the 1970s.

Solid mechanics, also known as mechanics of solids, is the branch of continuum mechanics that studies the behavior of solid materials, especially their motion and deformation under the action of forces, temperature changes, phase changes, and other external or internal agents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fracture toughness</span> Stress intensity factor at which a cracks propagation increases drastically

In materials science, fracture toughness is the critical stress intensity factor of a sharp crack where propagation of the crack suddenly becomes rapid and unlimited. A component's thickness affects the constraint conditions at the tip of a crack with thin components having plane stress conditions and thick components having plane strain conditions. Plane strain conditions give the lowest fracture toughness value which is a material property. The critical value of stress intensity factor in mode I loading measured under plane strain conditions is known as the plane strain fracture toughness, denoted . When a test fails to meet the thickness and other test requirements that are in place to ensure plane strain conditions, the fracture toughness value produced is given the designation . Fracture toughness is a quantitative way of expressing a material's resistance to crack propagation and standard values for a given material are generally available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sailcloth</span> Strong fabric of the type used to make ships sails

Sailcloth encompasses a wide variety of materials that span those from natural fibers, such as flax, hemp or cotton in various forms of sail canvas, to synthetic fibers, including nylon, polyester, aramids, and carbon fibers in a variety of woven, spun and molded textiles.

Micromechanics is the analysis of composite or heterogeneous materials on the level of the individual constituents that constitute these materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flexural modulus</span>

In mechanics, the flexural modulus or bending modulus is an intensive property that is computed as the ratio of stress to strain in flexural deformation, or the tendency for a material to resist bending. It is determined from the slope of a stress-strain curve produced by a flexural test, and uses units of force per area. The flexural modulus defined using the 2-point (cantilever) and 3-point bend tests assumes a linear stress strain response.

Material failure theory is an interdisciplinary field of materials science and solid mechanics which attempts to predict the conditions under which solid materials fail under the action of external loads. The failure of a material is usually classified into brittle failure (fracture) or ductile failure (yield). Depending on the conditions most materials can fail in a brittle or ductile manner or both. However, for most practical situations, a material may be classified as either brittle or ductile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Composite laminate</span>

In materials science, a composite laminate is an assembly of layers of fibrous composite materials which can be joined to provide required engineering properties, including in-plane stiffness, bending stiffness, strength, and coefficient of thermal expansion.

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers, carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers, carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic, also known as carbon fiber, carbon composite, or just carbon, are extremely strong and light fiber-reinforced plastics that contain carbon fibers. CFRPs can be expensive to produce, but are commonly used wherever high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness (rigidity) are required, such as aerospace, superstructures of ships, automotive, civil engineering, sports equipment, and an increasing number of consumer and technical applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rule of mixtures</span>

In materials science, a general rule of mixtures is a weighted mean used to predict various properties of a composite material. It provides a theoretical upper- and lower-bound on properties such as the elastic modulus, mass density, ultimate tensile strength, thermal conductivity, and electrical conductivity. In general there are two models, one for axial loading, and one for transverse loading.

References

  1. "Kevlar® KM2®". www2.dupont.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-08.
  2. Mechanical Properties of Kevlar KM2 Single Fibre, J. Eng Materials Technology, April 2005, Volume 127, Issue 2, pp.197–204