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Green Materials Engineering pp 33–47Cite as

Natural Fibers Reinforced Polymer Composites Applied in Ballistic Multilayered Armor for Personal Protection—An Overview

Part of the The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series book series (MMMS)

Abstract

Natural fibers have been investigated as composites reinforcement for technological applications. Several natural fiber composites were found to present similar ballistic performance as synthetic materials, such as KevlarTM in multilayered systems (MASs) against high-impact energy projectiles. MASs with a front ceramic followed by natural fibers, natural fabrics or natural non-woven mat such as curaua, jute, sisal, ramie, coir, piassava, fique, and sugarcane bagasse reinforcing polymer matrix composites attend the standards for personal ballistic protection against the threat of 7.62 mm ammunition. These natural fibers or fabrics or non-woven mats composites, as second MAS layer, succeed to capture the cloud of fragments resulting from the projectile impact on the ceramic layer with comparable ballistic efficiency as conventional synthetic aramid fiber composites with same thickness. In this work, the development of research dedicated to these natural fiber -based composites in MASs are overviewed and their advantages over synthetic materials are emphasized, especially the much lower cost.

Keywords

  • Natural fibers
  • Polymer composites
  • Ballistic behaviors
  • Multilayered armor

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the support of this investigation by the Brazilian agencies: CNPq, FAPERJ, and CAPES.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Military Institute of Engineering, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Sergio Neves Monteiro, Lucio Fabio Cassiano Nascimento, Fernanda Santos da Luz, Luís Carlos da Silva, Jheison Lopes dos Santos, Fábio da Costa Garcia Filho, Foluke Salgado de Assis, Édio Pereira Lima, Artur Camposo Pereira, Noan Tonini Simonassi, Michelle Souza Oliveira, Luana Cristyne da Cruz Demosthenes, Ulisses Oliveira Costa, Raphael Henrique Morais Reis & Wendell Bruno Almeida Bezerra

  2. Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA

    Jaroslaw Wieslaw Drelich

  3. University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia

    Henry Alonso Colorado Lopera

Authors
  1. Sergio Neves Monteiro
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  2. Jaroslaw Wieslaw Drelich
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  4. Lucio Fabio Cassiano Nascimento
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  17. Wendell Bruno Almeida Bezerra
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sergio Neves Monteiro .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Al Isra University, Amman, Jordan

    Dr. Shadia Ikhmayies

  2. CanmetMATERIALS, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Dr. Jian Li

  3. State University of Norte Fluminense, Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil

    Dr. Carlos Mauricio Fontes Vieira

  4. Higher Teaching Institute, Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil

    Jean Igor Margem (Deceased)

  5. National Service of Industrial Apprenticeship (SENAI), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Dr. Fabio de Oliveira Braga

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Monteiro, S.N. et al. (2019). Natural Fibers Reinforced Polymer Composites Applied in Ballistic Multilayered Armor for Personal Protection—An Overview. In: Ikhmayies, S., Li, J., Vieira, C., Margem (Deceased), J., de Oliveira Braga, F. (eds) Green Materials Engineering. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10383-5_4

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