Investigation of Puncture Behaviour of Flexible Silk Fabric Composites for Soft Body Armour

In the field of protective clothing, many different materials are used to provide cut, tear and puncture resistance where high levels of stiffness and shear resistance are important. In this study, an analysis of the cutting phenomenon in protective material based on standard cut test methods was performed. In order to improve the puncher resistance of protective fabric, multi-layer pads, highly preformed woven nets and triaxial fabrics are used as supporting layers. The results indicate that the specific puncture load is highest when using a silk stuffed pad supported on a high tenacity polyester net. Multi-layer silk fabric over para-aramid triaxial weave fabric (TWF) is superior to para-aramid plain weave fabric.