Rheological behavior of concentrated silica suspension and its application to soft armor

The objective of this study is to develop an advanced stab and/or ballistic proof material composed of shear thickening fluid (STF) and Kevlar composite fabric. In this study, we prepared STF using sphere silica and fumed silica as silica particles and ethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol (PEG 200) as medium fluid, respectively. And the rheological properties of the STF were investigated under different conditions. Also, we impregnated Kevlar fabrics with the STF, and investigated the stab and ballistic resistances of the targets layered by the STF impregnated Kevlar fabrics. From the results, we observed that the STF significantly showed the reversible liquid–solid transition at a certain shear rate, and the STF treatment significantly improved the stab and ballistic resistance of Kevlar fabric. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012