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Polyimide aerogels for ballistic impact protection

Version 2 2024-06-19, 20:10
Version 1 2023-07-28, 01:13
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-19, 20:10 authored by Sadeq Malakooti, Stephanie L Vivod, Michael PereiraMichael Pereira, Charles R Ruggeri, Duane M Revilock, Runyu Zhang, Haiquan Guo, Daniel A Scheiman, Linda S McCorkle, Hongbing Lu
AbstractThe ballistic performance of edge-clamped monolithic polyimide aerogel blocks (12 mm thickness) has been studied through a series of impact tests using a helium-filled gas gun connected to a vacuum chamber and a spherical steel projectile (approximately 3 mm diameter) with an impact velocity range of 150–1300 m s−1. The aerogels had an average bulk density of 0.17 g cm−3 with high porosity of approximately 88%. The ballistic limit velocity of the aerogels was estimated to be in the range of 175–179 m s−1. Moreover, the aerogels showed a robust ballistic energy absorption performance (e.g., at the impact velocity of 1283 m s−1 at least 18% of the impact energy was absorbed). At low impact velocities, the aerogels failed by ductile hole enlargement followed by a tensile failure. By contrast, at high impact velocities, the aerogels failed through an adiabatic shearing process. Given the substantially robust ballistic performance, the polyimide aerogels have a potential to combat multiple constraints such as cost, weight, and volume restrictions in aeronautical and aerospace applications with high blast resistance and ballistic performance requirements such as in stuffed Whipple shields for orbital debris containment application.

History

Journal

Scientific Reports

Volume

12

Article number

13933

Pagination

1-13

Location

Berlin, Germany

ISSN

2045-2322

eISSN

2045-2322

Language

English

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Issue

1

Publisher

Springer

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