The stab resistance of fabrics impregnated with shear thickening fluids including various particle size of additives

Shear thickening fluid (STF) treated high performance fabrics have attracted much attention in the applications of body protection. In order to improve the contribution of STF treatments, we designed multi-phase STFs and investigated the stab resistance of fabrics impregnated with these novel fluids. Silica and polyethylene glycol (PEG) based STFs were synthesized with various particle size of silicon carbide (SiC) additives to constitute the multi-phase suspension systems. The influence of the additive particles on the thickening behavior of the STFs was analyzed via rheological testing. The stab resistance of the fabrics was investigated in a drop tower against spike and knife threats and therefore, the role of the STFs was discussed in detail. According to this study, multi-phase STFs realized further improvement in the stab resistance of fabrics with respect to single-phase STFs.