Performance of Natural Curaua Non-woven Fabric Composites as Stand-Alone Targets Against Standard 9 mm and 7.62 mm Projectiles

Abstract

Natural fiber (NF) reinforced composites are gaining increasing attention from researchers and engineers, due to properties such as high strength, high toughness, low density, and biodegradability. More recently, their ballistic properties are being studied, aiming the application as low-weight/low-cost armor shields, either as stand-alone plates or integrating multilayered armor systems. Among the NF, stand out the curaua, the fibers extracted from the leaves of the Ananas Erectifolius, a plant from Amazon region. Their strength and Young’s modulus are among the highest of the NF, almost comparable to the glass fibers. In the present work, curaua non-woven fabric composites (CNWFC) were tested as stand-alone targets against 9 mm and 7.62 commercial ammunition bullets. The residual velocity (Vr) of the projectiles after impacting the targets was used as measure of the ballistic performance. A greater structural damage was observed in the composites tested with 9 mm, although these bullets have a much lower Kinect energy. Therefore, a higher energy absorption was observed, and thus, the protection against 9 mm projectiles might be more promising application for the CNWFC stand-alone plates.