Design and analysis of honeycomb-structured body armor

• Published in: AIP conference proceedings 2024-06, Vol.2565 (1)
• Main Authors: Nidheesh, K., Joshy, Aby, Antony, Alvin, Vaisakh, U. S., Prasad, Vishnu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic properties; Armor; Damping; Honeycomb structures; Injuries; Manufacturing; Projectiles; Shear thickening (liquids); Shells (structural forms); Topology; Torso
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0116644

The study of wound models reveals that upper and lower limb injuries from ballistic bullets accounted for approximately 70% of all injuries occurring on the battlefield. This is due to the fact that the armor currently employed is rigid in nature, making it difficult to flex without affecting performance. Therefore, a body armor design is needed, which can effectively provide protection to the torso, limbs and neck. The main goal of this project is to increase the performance and effectiveness of standard armor using new materials and technologies. It has also intended to investigate additional applications that could potentially use this design. Honeycomb structure is a porous shell structure that has been used for different applications due to its excellent mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties. It also shows flexibility with the change in expanded (tense) and compact (compressed) topologies that give rise to its auxetic behavior. This allows it to absorb more energy on impact. Colloidal shear thickening fluids such as silica in the aqueous suspension will exhibit reversible shear thickening due to the formation of interfering groups known as hydroclusters. For the design of devices which have the property of damping can be done using materials having nonlinear nature that enables the self-adjusting feature. Therefore, to study both concepts, it is important to use techniques such as FEA to create a basic model and find interactions of these two phenomena for the synthesis of the reinforcement design. From a manufacturing and manufacturing standpoint, fluid-based armor is difficult to handle. In addition, honeycomb structures are difficult to manufacture in different materials and require innovative and precision manufacturing. The model also requires performance to be analyzed at different scales for further study.