Enhancement of energy absorption by incorporation of shear thickening fluids in 3D-mat sandwich composite panels upon ballistic impact

Sandwich Composite panels have been proved to be efficient materials for energy dissipation. A new type of sandwich composite panels using 3D-mats with interconnected channels sandwiched between Kevlar® layers have been manufactured in this research work. The core of the panels have been filled with high-performance 600 nm silica based Shear Thickening Fluids (STFs) dispersed in polyethylene glycol of molecular weight 200 g/mol (PEG-200) to study its effect in improving the energy dissipation of the material. The panels are subjected to ballistic impact using a 9 mm diameter projectile. It was found that the STF-incorporated sandwich composite panels could absorb 96.3% of the incident energy which accounts to 67.4% more energy absorbed and also a 61.26% increase in absorbed energy per unit increase in weight in comparison to the hollow sandwich composite panels. This makes the STF-incorporated sandwich composite panels a promising material for enhanced energy absorption.