Impact response of Shear Thickening Fluid (STF)-treated woven fabrics

This paper primarily sought to evaluate shear thickening fluid (STF) contributions to the impact responses of kenaf fabric, carbon fabric, glass fabric, and Kevlar fabric. Fumed silica nanoparticles were dispersed within polyethylene glycol (PEG) at a mass fraction of 35% to fabricate an STF. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that SiO₂ nanoparticles were effectively distributed throughout the suspension. Based on the pull-out test, the SFT treatment of the fabrics raised the pull-out load of yarns. The maximum pull-out load was obtained for kenaf fabric, which was explained by the inter-yarn interaction leading to substantial pull-out resistance. The STF contribution to the energy absorption of the fabrics was measured through comparison to the untreated specimens. Kevlar fabric was found to outperform the other fabric specimens, while kenaf fabric had the lowest performance. The large inter-friction of kenaf yarns did not improve the performance of kenaf since kenaf fabric yarns intrinsically have poor ultimate strength. The STF raised the average energy absorption of the Kevlar, kenaf, glass, and carbon fabric specimens by 45.6%, 75%, 62.3%, and 84%, respectively. Thus, the carbon fabric specimen enjoyed the maximum energy absorption enhancement upon STF treatment. Based on fabric deformations, the STF-treated fabrics had longer woven structure preservation than their untreated counterparts due to frictional yarn interactions, resulting in larger energy absorption capacities.