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 (V_r) 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.