Fragment-Resistant Property Optimization within Ballistic Inserts Obtained on the Basis of Para-Aramid Materials

A high protection level without an excessive weight is a basic assumption in the design of modern armors and protection systems. Optimizing armors is a task of development of the utmost importance, and is the subject of the work contained within this article. Optimization of ballistic inserts was carried out using multicriterial analysis (MCA), which enables the selection of the optimal composition, taking into account properties such as ballistic resistance, physicomechanical, and/or functional properties. For this purpose, various types of composite systems were produced and tested in terms of their fragment-resistant properties according to STANAG 2920 and the composite areal density of different ballistic inserts: Soft inserts made of Twaron(®) para-aramid sheets, hard ballistic inserts made of multilayer hot-pressed preimpregnated sheets, and hybrid hard ballistic inserts prepared on the basis of multilayer hot-pressed preimpregnated sheets and ceramics. The application of MCA and performance of experimental fragment resistance tests for a wide spectrum of para-aramid inserts are part of the novelty of this work. The obtained test results showed that depending on the composition of the composite system, we could obtain a wide range of fragmentation resistance in the range of 300 to >1800 m/s, which depended on the areal density and type of composite system used. The results also confirmed that MCA is a good computational tool to select the optimal design of para-aramid ballistic inserts.