Bullet-Proof Peanut Butter
August 1, 2006 Posted by Al Castle
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Categories: Science
Well not really, but that’s my loose translation of the analogy Amor Holdings is giving in regards to their new “liquid” body armour. Sounding very similar to the impact armour worn by the protagonist, Louis Wu in Larry Nivens ‘Ringworld Engineers‘ novel.
Essentially a very thin layer of this new polymer is meshed with “tough fiber” materials, helping to disperse the energy of an impact ( from a projectile weapon ) better than the standard heavy Kevlar material alone. It does this by hardening at the moment of impact and then softening again afterwards. The article I read makes no mention of how this would actually protect against the whole blunt trauma aspect of a projectile weapon. For example if I’m wearing a bullet proof vest with steel plates, the actual penetration is prevented ( hopefully ) by the steel plate but the kinetic energy still knocks me on my butt and produces bruising. I imagine the same can be said for this new product. I can’t imagine military helmets will change much in design over this one.
Aside from the obvious applications it would be nice for some inner urban areas to have this mixed into the house paint to decrease the damage of drive by shootings.
I wonder how well it holds up to impacts that aren’t at the level of bullets. For example it would be great for Postal Carriers to have a coating mixed into their garments that would prevent dog bites from actually puncturing flesh. Same with wet suits and shark attacks. Though my understanding is the pounds per square inch of a shark attack is enough to shatter the bones even when wearing a chain mail type protective suit.
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I didn’t read the article but I read a bit ./ discussion…but it suddenly occurs to me what the brilliance of a liquid based armor conceals: wave energy created by the impact carries the kinetic energy across the volume of the armor.
Of course the full forward velocity cannot be stopped, so I wonder how effective the transfer of forward energy is to lateral energy. I’d think that if the fiber in the armor stiffens under impact, it would produce blunt and not piercing trauma. I can see the fibers under impact squeezing the viscous component to the side, and those waves carrying the energy away from the impact site.