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High Thickness Kevlar/Carbon Nanostructured Composite for Impact Protection

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Abstract

Aim of the work is to analyze the effects of medium/high energy impacts on layered nanostructured composites for aerospace applications. Ballistic tests have been carried out by means of a linear electromagnetic accelerator, called Rail Gun, that has been in-house assembled and tuned in order to perform impact testing at different bullet velocities. A tunable power supplier has been used to set the system capacitors charging voltage at the desired level in order to tune the Rail Gun energy as a function of the desired bullet velocity. The composite materials under testing have been manufactured by integrating several layers of Kevlar fabrics and carbon fiber ply within a polymeric matrix (epoxy resin) also reinforced with carbon nanotubes at 1wt%. Several plate-shaped multilayered structures have been realized and characterized in terms of energy absorbing capability upon impact. The effect of the introduction of the filling nanostructured material within the bulk matrix has been qualitatively evaluated. A numerical simulation by Ansys code has been also performed in order to analyze the impact dynamic. The obtained results show that the proposed material could be employed for aerospace application, such as lightweight box assembling for electronic equipment mechanical protection from shock or impacts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, “Sapienza” - Università di Roma, Italy

    A. Vricella, D. Micheli, R. Pastore & M. Marchetti

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  1. A. Vricella
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  2. D. Micheli
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  3. R. Pastore
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  4. M. Marchetti
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Vricella, A., Micheli, D., Pastore, R. et al. High Thickness Kevlar/Carbon Nanostructured Composite for Impact Protection. Aerotec. Missili Spaz. 95, 50–56 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404714

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404714

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