Hypervelocity Impact Experiments on Epoxy/Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene Fiber Composites Reinforced with Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes

Nanocomposites of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fabrics with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) in epoxy matrix were prepared in order to study their hypervelocity impact (HVI) characteristics. These nanocomposites were assessed for their use as bumper shields and as rear walls in Whipple shield configurations at impact velocities in the 6.5-7 km/s range. The HVI performances of the nanocomposites were compared against that of the epoxy/UHMWPE composites without nanotubes (or simply, neat composites) and aluminum (Al) sheets having areal density similar to both the composites. The results show that the nanocomposites and the neat composites perform better as rear walls than the Al sheets, but are lesser effective bumper shields. Comparatively, the two composites perform similarly to one another as rear walls and as bumper shields. For these epoxy/UHMWPE composite samples, the reinforcement with 0.5 wt% of SWCNT has no noticeable effect on their HVI response.