Ballistic impact and explosive blast resistance of stitched composites

The effectiveness of stitching in increasing the damage resistance of polymer composites against ballistic projectiles and explosive blasts is determined. Glass-reinforced vinyl ester composites stitched in the through-thickness direction with thin Kevlar (R) -49 yarn were impacted with a bullet travelling at 0.9 km s(-1) or an underwater explosive shock wave moving at 1.5 km s(-1). The amount of delamination damage to the composite caused by a ballistic projectile was reduced slightly with stitching. Stitching was highly effective in increasing the damage resistance against explosive blast loading. The increased damage resistance was due to the stitching raising the Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of the composite. While the stitched composites experienced slightly less damage, their flexural modulus and strength was similar to the properties of the unstitched composite after ballistic impact testing. The post-blast flexural properties of the stitched composites, on the other hand, were degraded less than the properties of the unstitched material. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.