Behavior of Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) impregnated fabric composite rear wall under hypervelocity impact

On the contrary to previous researches on Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) impregnated fabric composites as a protection method against low to middle velocity impact such as stabbing or bulletproofing, the application of STF on space shields seems to be quite skeptical due to high-speed range of micro meteoroid and orbital debris (M/OD). However, the results of the eight types of fabric rear layers involving STF impregnated fabric of this study suggest that STF impregnated fabric can be a promising candidate for the improved rear wall of a space shield. After hypervelocity impact to the Al 6061-T6 frontal bumper, the all Heracron fabric rear wall was not fully penetrated against the hypervelocity fragments. However, a large hole was found in case of 2 mm Al 6061-T6 rear wall with the almost identical areal density and impact velocity. By replacing last 10 Heracron fabric layers from the rear side of the fabric rear wall to 6 layers of STF impregnated fabric, the trend in the number of undamaged layers was positively inversed. The study shows experimentally that the fabric rear wall of a space shielding system can be enhanced effectively by using STF impregnated layers.